Nature never fails to surprise me! One time, I saw a garter snake climb a bush, which I had no idea they could do so gracefully. Another time, I watched a squirrel carefully dip a piece of bread into a puddle like it was softening it before eating.
Have you ever witnessed wildlife doing something that made you stop and say, “I didn’t know they could do that”? I’d love to hear your stories!
I didn’t observe this personally (feel free to flag this comment), but I recently learned that octopuses lead hunting parties on reefs. I HAVE scuba dived, but I’m not much of a diver, so I don’t know why I expected myself to know that.
Many iNatters are the “wildlife expert” in their circle of humans, so I do get surprised when I learn about an animal behaviour that is totally new to me.
I was watching a group of tufted titmice in the canopy when all of a sudden, two of them locked their talons together and spun around until they hit the ground. Both sat there and were breathing heavily for about 30 seconds until they flew off. I think they were fighting for a mate? Or maybe territory?
Besides my trees changing their sex, I think it would this.
The young of Ctenosaura similis, which species we call tolocs, are bright green and there is almost always one living in the garden, usually just one at a time though.
I cannot explain the why, but I realized that a particular young toloc was methodically going though the garden each morning to specifically eat Ruellia blossoms, which whither somewhat early in the day. It is not so much the specificity of this but the gentleness with which the blossoms were consumed, so that the remainder of these plants were not damaged at all.
(It got to where if I saw the Ruellia blooms still present, I would try to avoid lingering in the back garden until they had been consumed. Eventually he aged out of this preference or moved on.)
Tolocs are just not a species I think of as dainty, but this toloc ate these flowers daintily.
One thing that puzzles and surprises me is when a species starts behaving in a different way. The example I have in mind is a very common Australian bird called the noisy miner https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ee7498bf-c57c-4463-b313-710d4959cc95, named because of its resemblance to Asian mynahs. This is a type of honeyeater and is very common in urban areas. Noisy miners are aggressive to other birds and in recent years they have started to behave aggressively towards humans. This takes the form of swooping at people, mostly from behind, and trying to peck them on the head. Sometimes they will just click their bills in a threat display. The thing is that while these birds have been living in inhabited areas for many years, it is only in recent times that they have adopted this behaviour. It is not limited to a specific location they seem to have started this behaviour in widely separated areas about the same time.
I’ve seen a house finch juvenile mimic a white breasted nuthatch it saw on a suet feeder on a tree. Climbing vertically [failed attempt to do so] just like the nut hatch. Amazing! I have photos of it too.
Also, from the same brood of house finch juveniles, they kept bullying a male cardinal who was 5x the size of the little finches. One day, cardinal jad enough of being bullied for a week and when the house finch baby tried to kick him off of the platform bird seed feeder, cardinal pecked the house finch in the head. It was hilarious. 
I’ll try to find photos of those moments. I know I have video of the finch getting pecked. I’ll post them up ASAP.
