Arboreal Foraging and Food-caching by the Forest Raven Corvus tasmanicus

Abstract

Observations were made of arboreal foraging, use of arboreal cache-sites and retrieval of food from caches by Forest Ravens Corvus tasmanicus, in forest on the North Coast of New South Wales in spring 1996 and 1997. During the Ravens' breeding cycle, mostly while they had young nestlings, the adults hid food in three types of cache-site: stick structures (used as feeding platforms), cavities in dead branches, and behind loose bark on tree-trunks. While near the nest, apparently guarding, adult Ravens sometimes foraged in the tree canopy by gleaning foliage and probing dead wood.