Fish Crow eating Bees

[Henry Domke]

Walking along the beach on Sanibel Island this morning I saw a Fish Crow on the flower of a Century Plant. I couldn't understand why it was there so I went closer. As I got closer I could see bees were swarming around the crows head. The crow kept plunging it's beak deep into the flowers.

My guess is that the crow was eating the bees that were getting nectar from the flower. However, I never saw a bee being eaten. Perhaps it was just eating nectar.
Any thoughts on what the crow was doing?

1DX 600II + 1.4X III f/5.6 1/2500sec ISO 2000. handheld
Processed with Lightrooom 5 and Photoshop CC

[Joe Senzatimore]

Only thing I can think of was getting stung. Very cool image. Might remove the oof bees and just leave the ones that are sharp.

[Holger Leyrer]

i dont know what the crow was doing but the picture I really like.
Exposure is excellent. Like the Details in the black plumage and the bees in the blue sky.
I would remove the dark bee at the right image border

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent job on EXP and detail in the BLACKs. A bit wider so as to include all of the flower (?) might have been a good option. Very sharp. You might want to check the breast for a green cast, possibly the result of light reflected off the flower.... Perfect head angle.

[Alan Murphy]

Fantastic image. Wish it was mine.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Neat sighting Henry, and a unique crow image. Fun to study the flower for a couple extra bees in there. Going wider would have been an option for sure. Did you flip and clone a bee? The light reflection on the in-focus bees' tail end is from opposite light direction...that's what gave it away for me...

[Henry Domke]

Did you flip and clone a bee?
You look carefully! Yes. I did it in a hurry on my laptop. Normally I would have spent more time with it and been more careful.

Thanks to everyone for the comments. If anyone has an idea about that that crow was doing I'd love to hear it.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Hey Henry, I wish it was mine too. Beautiful exposure, so much detail in the blacks. My new favorite crow shot.