Crow Looks Like a Tiny Gorilla Upon First Glance

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— LIWJATAN (@keita_simpson) June 20, 2019

LIWJATAN captured the bizarre sight of what looked like a tiny gorilla sitting upon the steps of a building. Upon closer look, however, the gorilla was actually a sunning crow. Canadian Corvid expert Kaeli Swift PhD quickly analyzed the situation in a series of tweets and a diagram or two.

Second, this bird is not missing its legs and propping itself up with its wings, that would be physically impossible. Also, not that it’s relevant to the answer, but a crow without legs couldn’t fly, because it couldn’t generate any lift. So legless crow is a dead crow.

— Kaeli Swift, PhD (@corvidresearch) June 22, 2019

What it’s actually doing is sunning itself. When birds sun they drop their wings and cock their tails. At the right angle that could obscure the legs and tail making it look like they’re missing.

— Kaeli Swift, PhD (@corvidresearch) June 22, 2019

Usually the mouth is open and the body is closer to the ground, making the behavior more obvious, but perhaps the videographer caught it in a moment of transition.

— Kaeli Swift, PhD (@corvidresearch) June 22, 2019

In any case sunning like this is a common behavior among birds. Sometimes it’s about warming up but a lot of times you’ll see them do it when it’s hot out. In these cases it’s about feather care. Sun exposure can reduce feather degrading bacteria and mites.

— Kaeli Swift, PhD (@corvidresearch) June 22, 2019