As you are agnostic but lean towards accepting the claim, what would you need to see to shift one way or another?
As long as eye-witness accounts continue to be recorded (and they have been recorded by the hundreds over a few decades), then I will continue to remain skeptical, but leaning toward acceptance. Of course, video evidence would be nice to have, although those who have dug themselves into a hole of denial will scream fake!
You see, unlike dann (and to a certain extent you) I do not summarily dismiss observers as liars and frauds, especially those who are experienced in the relevant fields (bush fires and animal behavior). Essentially, if an expert in bird behavior, or an expert in bushfires, gives a detailed description of, say, a black kite picking up a smouldering twig and dropping it in a location where there was no fire, then I have no right to call that person a liar.
However, in your case, smartcooky and macdoc, what would you need to see to accept that the birds do NOT do this?
You are asking me how I can prove a negative? Really? You ought to know better than that!
Then how do you accept there is no Bigfoot?
You still don't get the fact that there is a world of difference between claiming to observe an alleged animal, the existence of which is not supported by any scientific evidence at all, and the claimed observing of a
known species of animal behaving in a way that is in complete accord with
known observed, meticulously documented, filmed and scientifically studied behavior.
If you can't get your head around this fact, there isn't much I can do to help you.
Raptors are
known to use twigs and small branches as tools to get food.
Raptors are
known to shape twigs into hooked tools to make it easier to get food.
It is
not a stretch to accept that they
might use tools in other ways, such as spreading fire to get food. It is nowhere near as big a stretch to accept as is the existence of Bigfoot or UFO's from alien planets.
.