If you didn't believe Ravens are really smart...

One of the pair of 'my' ravens hangs out on top my car's luggage rack, using it as a perch. The other raven usually hangs out in one of the tall pines in my back yard as watch out (I suppose).

Raven-on-car will start vocalizing if I don't notice if soon enough and give it food. Their usual breakfast is a hot dog. When I toss out one dog, car-raven hops down and grabs it, bites it in half and then proceeds with delay tactics. At this point tree-raven is starting his dramatic swoop down--he always does a lovely spiral-down instead of a perfectly acceptable straight down approach. Car-raven will still be in delay tactic mode waiting to see if I will lose patience waiting for it to take off with the dog, because IF I toss out the second hot dog she always beats the tree-raven to it. Sometimes I will have to stand there on the deck for several minutes, a cold, dripping hot dog in my hand while she plays a game of picking up and putting down her hot dog pieces.

So a few days ago, I tossed out the second hot dog to the left of car-raven, far as I could to try and speed things up and get TR his dog. I watched CR fly/dive over to the new dog and the TR (now sitting on the mailbox post across the street) dove for CR's original dog. Win Win. I didn't have to stand there in the cold waiting for CR to fly off and they both got one hot dog.

The next day ditto. I was able to do a bait-and-switch with them and get outta the cold promptly.

This morning CR did not bite the dog in half. I didn't think too much of it. TR had done his swirl down and was sitting on the mailboxes...and note WHO is the smartest one here:
I tossed the second dog to the left, expecting another baitnswitch scenario. CR immediately made the short fly to the left for the second dog. TR flew off the mailboxes and headed straight for the area in the driveway where the usually abandoned (original) dog would be. He landed perfectly in the right spot and I was suprised to see he did not have the dog in his beak in a matter of seconds. I looked left. CR had two hot dogs in her beak. CR had taken her original dog (not bitten in half) with her on the fly to get the second dog, too, instead of leaving it as had happened two days in a row. She learned within two experiences the routine and thought ahead as to not have to deal with two pieces of hot dog, keeping it whole, knowing she would be doing this.

It's not the first time I've had to dole out three hot dogs (CR is good and I am sometimes impatient) but the thought process here was pretty amazing.