From Our Print Edition

Well, at least in Alaska. Shades of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds.’

A shopper at the Costco in Anchorage was putting his groceries into his car when two ravens swooped down and stole a short rib from his cart.

“I literally took 10 steps away and turned around, two ravens came down and instantly grabbed one out of the package, ripped it off and flew off with it,” Matt Lewallen told the Anchorage Daily News.

The piece of meat was about 4-by-7 inches, but the bird had no problem carrying it off.

“They know what they’re doing; it’s not their first time,” Lewallen said. “They’re very fat so I think they’ve got a whole system there.”

The ravens hang out mostly in the winter, shagging meat, fruit and veggies from shoppers’ carts. Sometimes they circle people or land on nearby cars and squawk. The Anchorage Audubon Society reported 750 common ravens in December 2020.