Gangs of the sky: Crows are riding on the back of a tawny eagle.

“The eagle flew on for a while with the crow attached, until it managed to dislodge it and fly off into the distance,” he adds.

Just what might have prompted the crow’s brief joyride is unclear, but crows are well known for their eagle-pestering ways.

“Crows are basically the gangsters of the bird world,” jokes Shannon Hoffman from the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary in South Africa. “I see them bothering birds – owls, eagles and others – all the time, seemingly just for the heck of it.”

Hoffman, who’s been working full time with birds of prey since 2000, adds that while it is possible the crow was displaying some territorial behaviour, it’s more likely that it was just simply being a pest.

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