Crows are some serious circus acrobats. I often watch the wild ones flying through the trees, I mean, diving, racing, twisting, turning, swooping, at incredible pace, beating their wings so hard they look as though they might break off, zipping through dense rambly scrambly woods. At times they pull such quick, crazy maneuvers that their feathers twist and contort like a useless rag in the wind, then just as quickly snap back to resume functioning aerodynamically. It is hard to see how they manage these feats of aerobatics without crashing or breaking a wing on a branch, but they do, and it is nothing short of amazing.
Fig is permanently disabled, but she still pulls stunts out on her balcony, flying up the wall, and the fence, rolling over, twisting around, ttouching the ceiling with both feet, bounding off every object and surface, dive bombing into her bath and out again. She can be nuts, and sometimes she does crash, or slide out, but she seems indestructible.
The other day though, she did something, with that broken wing of hers which left me utterly stunned silent. I was with her in the living room, and my wife was in the kitchen. She had the refrigerator door open, flush into the kitchen doorway. This leaves a space of exactly 11cm between the edge of the fridge door, and the kitchen door frame. Suddenly, Fig leapt off of me, flying directly towards this tiny gap. I have no idea how she fit through the space, because it seemed to me to be exactly the size of her body. She flew two meters at a dash, twisted 90degrees in midair next to instantly, and went straight through that narrow gap, twisted back, and flew another two meters to land triumphantly on the kitchen table, cawing excitedly, like she'd just pulled off one unbelievable stunt, which she had. I measured her body as best I could and it's only a centimeter or so smaller than the gap. I don't even think what she did is physically possible, but it gave me a good laugh when my wife ooped in surprise as Fig skimmed past behind her showing off.
Fig is permanently disabled, but she still pulls stunts out on her balcony, flying up the wall, and the fence, rolling over, twisting around, ttouching the ceiling with both feet, bounding off every object and surface, dive bombing into her bath and out again. She can be nuts, and sometimes she does crash, or slide out, but she seems indestructible.
The other day though, she did something, with that broken wing of hers which left me utterly stunned silent. I was with her in the living room, and my wife was in the kitchen. She had the refrigerator door open, flush into the kitchen doorway. This leaves a space of exactly 11cm between the edge of the fridge door, and the kitchen door frame. Suddenly, Fig leapt off of me, flying directly towards this tiny gap. I have no idea how she fit through the space, because it seemed to me to be exactly the size of her body. She flew two meters at a dash, twisted 90degrees in midair next to instantly, and went straight through that narrow gap, twisted back, and flew another two meters to land triumphantly on the kitchen table, cawing excitedly, like she'd just pulled off one unbelievable stunt, which she had. I measured her body as best I could and it's only a centimeter or so smaller than the gap. I don't even think what she did is physically possible, but it gave me a good laugh when my wife ooped in surprise as Fig skimmed past behind her showing off.
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