For the first time ever, a bird species in forested island in the South Pacific, New Caledonian crows, has been captured on camera using hook-shaped tools to hunt for their prey.

Known for their ability to make and use tools, the crows, among other things, use sticks to “fish” for wood-boring larvae hiding in dead wood or tree trunks by fashioning the sticks into sharp poking instruments.

The findings are part of a new study published this week in Biology Letters. For capturing the act of the crows, the scientists used specialized miniature cameras and 19 avian auteurs.

Christian Rutz, study coauthor who is a behavioral ecologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said the phenomenon was known to all and scientists knew about it but nobody so far had captured it in a video.

Then a graduate student at the University of Birmingham, Rutz created “mini spy cams” specially fitted for birds. “Some people think you need a large brain to use tools. These crows disprove that. They show incredibly complex tool behavior. The big question is: Why and how? What is special about the crows on this island? this shows how curious a species crows are”, said Rutz.

Scientists say among other birds known to use tools are the Galapagos woodpecker, which hunts for insects with the use of cactus spines and twigs, and Egyptian vulture, which hits ostrich eggs with stones to crack them open.