Abstract
IN NATURE of Dec. 20, 1930, p. 956, Mr. Sydney Evershed has described an observation relating to ravens flying upside-down. From this note one gets the impression that the habit is rather rare; from my observations, however, this is not the case. For some years I have had the opportunity of seeing many hundreds of these interesting birds in Iceland, where the number of individuals of this species apparently is rapidly increasing, probably because the refuse from the fisheries affords food for very large numbers of them. In some places—as Westmannaeyer and Hnifsdal in Isafjord—I have seen about a hundred of these birds performing evolutions in the air round favourite resting places, and here it is a rather common appearance to see the birds flying upside-down in the manner described, though I do not think I have seen them flying for so long a distance as 1000 metres, as recorded by Mr. Evershed. The upside-down flight is, so far as I can judge, not particularly connected with the courtship, though it is most often seen at the time of courtship, when air acrobatics are especially performed by the birds.
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TÅNING, Å. Ravens Flying Upside-down. Nature 127, 856 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127856c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127856c0
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