They're lovebirds!

My crow couple... they really aren't crows at all.   I caught them sitting in the poplar one evening.... kissing....

I call them Limpy and the Missus most of the time, but sometimes I call her Big Girl..... because she is.  She is big, beautiful and fierce.... she has large feet and sturdy long legs...and seems  so much larger than Limpy.  His legs are pretty skinny and his one wing droops down at what I am calling his shoulder.... poor guy.  But, he does get around pretty well even with is disabilities.

She is amazing on the wing... even a squirrel zigzagging across the street could hardly stay ahead of her.  He zigged, she zigged.... he zagged, she zagged ...   she almost managed to catch his upraised tail...oooohh... they hate squirrels with a passion.  I don't know if squirrels would dare to raid a crow's nest ... but, maybe ...   All I know is ... if they see one, they give chase ..  even if they see one half a block away!  Where was the camera that day.  I would have had to be some kind of speedy to catch any of it!

Limpy is a little less graceful in his attempts to get rid of intruders and interlopers ... this is more his favourite position.  Sitting outside my window ... keeping a beady eye on me. ..

but if anybody comes near "his" food board...or "his" bird bath water.... in "his" yard, he gives awkward flapping, hopping and jumping chase.   Between them, this pair of crows gets rid of Starlings, squirrels, magpies, and small hawks..... in their quest to raise their babies.  I don't mind at all that he keeps other big or annoying birds away.  The little birds don't mind him and his Missus at all.  The sparrows are even cheeky enough to steal his seeds off the board I set out for the crows.  The chickadees don't care about any other birds... they come ..do their thing and go... as they please.

He has become somewhat stronger ... he doesn't use the tree for climbing up to their nest anymore.  He manages to get airborne and onto a neighbouring rooftop...and, from there, up to the nest.   They try to switch with each other so they don't leave the nest unguarded for any length of time.  Unlike the darn robins in the photo below ... they left their nest unguarded .... and, .... oh, no..... Mister Limpy did a BAD, BAD thing!!  He got up to the robin nest and stole an egg.....ohhhhh...I feel bad now...... Here he is ..caught in the act.  Only because I wondered what he was up to sitting on the big plant pot arrangement on the front steps of the neighbour's house and got the camera to check through the zoom lens....... I was shocked to see him do it.  I suppose I shouldn't have been...but, I was.

I'm finking on him and linking up to  Wild Bird Wednesday ....   click on the photo below if you would like to see all sorts of beautiful and interesting birds....