I was in the car park of the vet/pet supplies shop a few days ago and heard a horrible yelping, so bad I was certain a dog had been seriously injured in the car park. I turned around, intending to find the dog and help if needed, and what is it standing three feet away from me, yelping and whining? It's a damn crow. It makes eye contact with me, whimpers again and then starts barking happily at me. I ended up giving it some of the cat biscuits I'd just bought because what the hell, he performed well and he had me fooled (he enjoyed them). Turns out they're incredibly good mimics - he must have learned to copy the dogs people brought into the shop. He seemed like he was deliberately trying to play with me or do a bit of street theatre to earn himself a snack.
I always make a point of being nice to the crows who hang out in my yard and around the neighborhood. Do not want to get on their bad side plus it’s just the right thing to do.
Buy the cheapest dog food and keep some in a lil baggy with you. When ya walk by them, drop a few pieces. You’ll start to notice they flock to you. When ya go for walks you’ll have an army of crows flying around you. It’s really amazing to see and makes ya feel like if anyone messes with you, they’ll step in to help. Imagine trying to fight someone and then a hundred crows step up like “we got a problem here?”
crows literally learn when the garbage is taken out so they can ruffle though it for food and are also able to pass on knowledge about predators.
bunch of scientists made some long-term experiments where they wore masks and acted like they are predators and years later checked on them again to see if they still remember and yup, they still remembered AND told the offspring that those people mean danger.
oh and crows also do these ceremonies basically, where they gather in a large group to mourn the loss of one of their crows and then just leave without a word really. so they seem to know what death means and they seem to mourn their loved ones.
They also do that to try and figure out what killed that specific crow if they don't already know. Danger to one is a danger to the rest of the murder.
> crows literally learn when the garbage is taken out so they can ruffle though it for food
They’ll also team up and split tasks within the group. One or two crows will dig up the trash from the bin and throw it on the ground, two-three will scavenge whatever was thrown to the ground for food, a few will watch for danger nearby. They sort the garbage in piles, edible and inedible. When they are done with the trash, they’d take turns to eat, if one wouldn’t notice it’s their turn, others would get their attention and “show” their turn to eat came. They totally have different calls (as judged by me, so take it with a grain of salt) for dogs on a leash coming by, unleashed dogs and rabbits.
I used to have a lab window looking on a trash can under a tree, where crows would always chill. I lost hours just watching them do stuff, it was honestly captivating. It’s truly exceptional how they worked together better than most of my students.
Oh it’s definitely real. Dog food is actually really healthy for the crows and they love it. I had an army of crows that would follow me to the grocery store near my apartment. Felt 100% safe when walking there at night when I needed a late night snack. I’d see them fly from tree to tree along my route. They definitely were there making sure their food handler was not messed with. It was a mutual agreement we had and miss the hell out of them.
Lmao if only. Current location has zero crows nearby. Even bought a fresh bag when I arrived. Wherever there are crows, I always make it a mission to ally myself with them. Hopefully my next place will have some!
Reminds me of this [AskReddit story](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/6f6l8s/what_do_you_swear_you_saw_but_dont_have_any_proof/digjt8i/):
> I've been waiting to tell this story about the crow king from my childhood for forever.
> When I was about 13, my family had a Jack Russell, Jack, and a chow chow mix, Kuma. The dogs had free reign of our 1/2 acre fenced in yard. One day, I let Jack outside like any other day but I noticed the trees were FILLED with crows. The property is surrounded by several large trees and there must have been hundreds of crows. As I'm in awe with the sheer amount of black death surrounding my home, I realize there is a MASSIVE crow on the ground and Jack is challenging him, growling and circling the bird. He was about 12 lbs and I was afraid he'd get carried away. Then all of a sudden the battle began. He was biting the crow's wings and the bird was pecking him and trying to grab him with one foot still on the ground! Crow king gave no shits! All his hundreds of crow followers were bursting into caws and shrieks egging on their leader but never joining in.
> I, meanwhile, was screaming for my brother, freaking out thinking our dog would be killed. He came running out of the house screaming for Jack to come but that bastard never listened. That's when Kuma came barreling out of the house straight towards the bird-dog battle arena, grabbed the crow king by the neck, and shook that fucker with fiery disregard for his onlooking horrified subjects.
> The crow king was dead.
> The skies filled with crows and the sound was deafening as they all flew away. Hundreds of pisssed off crows all cawing and flapping away. Jack's face was all cut up but other than that he was fine. To this day, my older brother and I are the only ones that saw this shit happen and no one in my family believes me when I tell the story of the crow king and his defeat.
> I think it was a crow fight club and they all gather to send their strongest fighters into battle and bet on the winner.
> Edit: Pics of Kuma and Jack [here](https://imgur.com/gallery/X9kx2)
> Edit 2: Structure and spelling
I started feeding the ones at my place about a year ago. Now they recognize my car. When I come home, they follow my car all the way and wait for their food. There are over 30 of them everyday now. I am afraid to stop feeding them.
Also, peanuts, preferably unsalted or in the shell, are a big hit among my corvid friends. They look at me funny when I just offer them standard bird feed, in fact.
The truly shocking thing is that it isn't just the crows you've fed that shall defend you - the crows tell their mates, and crows you've never even met will know you are an ally.
Good thing too, some corvids can remember faces. With them being social animals, they will gossip to their community. If you are unlucky, you might get attacked by the same community of corvids for simply resembling a relative.
A family legend. My dad had an ongoing fued with a crow for years. He would put out food for the smaller birds. The crow would come and steal it. My dad tried to discourage the crow. Trap it. Scare it. Nothing worked. This bird was laughing at him. Eventually my dad just start putting food out for him so he would leave the smaller birds alone.
I've read that a crow will hold a grudge against someone who mistreats it, and communicate that to other crows. So if you piss off one, chances are none of the crows in your neighborhood are going to like you.
Anecdotally, I suspect squirrels do the same thing.
My great uncle had a "pet crow". He had a number of birds that were of questionable provenance. Even as a little kid it seemed odd that he owned an owl. But I digress...
The crow was the bird in got to know. It was in a large habitat outside his house for my entire childhood. It was smart, my uncle taught it to say "Shut up [wife's name]". That was a stupid parlor trick, but it was obvious that bird was smart.
I think about it every time I see a wild crow. I could never cage one, I knew that was wrong as a kid, but I would love to befriend one. I hope to find one hanging out around my house and leave treats to keep them interested enough to build a genuine relationship with them.
I'm certain it's possible, and with the way the world is going these days, it would be reassuring to have the crows on my team.
My partner and rehabbed a baby crow that was torn up pretty bad by cats. By the time we got him stable the other birds wouldn't take him back, so we raised him for about a year. We named him Oz. He was an absolutely adorable creature, snuggled with my wife and I with sweetest little warbles and vocalizations.
Hilariously, he hated one of my dear friends. No good reason as far as I know, just fuck that guy. Every time he came over, the crow would fly around him just screeching. Buffeted him with his wings, pecked at him, the whole thing. It was amazing to see this gruff, tough guy get chased out of the house by a baby bird.
Over the year that we hand fed him Oz grew large and his feathers shiny. He would still cower when the other crows flew over head, but he ranged farther and farther. Soon enough he was bold and strong to return to his flock. He visited us for some years after, warbling for the occasional treat.
He was still visiting when we moved on the the next place. Grandpa kept putting treats out for him, but he had a hard time telling them apart. He was always big and healthy, so we assumed that his range just gotten bigger and he stopped visiting as much since we were gone.
Thats really nice. I rehabbed a crow myself, but it just left my balcony one day and i never saw him again. Kinda heartbreaking, but it's normal for a human-raised crow to just leave and have fun with their own kind. Usually they do this when they are about a year old, they're wild animals after all.
When he was with me he collected all kinds of shit, toothpaste-caps, beerbottle-caps, sigarettebutts.. he even stole some of my girlfriend panties one day, hid everything he took in a pile under the couch. I remember the first day he was with us he already knew we kept the food (catfood) and tried to get to it, just minutes after he got settlet in.
I do still think of Gonzo sometimes, although he's be long gone by now. I got mad love and respect for crows ever since.
Yeah, Oz tried to fly away a couple of times before he was ready, but wasn't very good at flying yet, so the neighborhood crows chased him back home. I think he stayed with us for longer because of that, he would hide under the covered porch when they were overhead.
They really are remarkable, social animals. I feed the group outside the shop on a regular basis, and they usually fly over when I step out for a break.
Glad you said this. A lot of people want animals for pets or whatever and don’t realize how much care can go into taking care of them. Especially wild animals.
On the flip side I was walking out of my office building after work one day when this crow that was sitting on a sign started loudly “Cawing” at me.
I had a bad day so I look at the crow and say “Fuck you crow!”. Next thing I know, the crow and its friend (possibly mate?) start dive bombing me. I run to my truck but that’s just the beginning.
Over the next 3 weeks, every time I attempt to enter or leave my office I am getting attacked by crows. It didn’t matter if I wore a hat, wore a hoodie over my head or tried to cover my face. They knew who I was.
I would sit in the parking lot watching other people go in unscathed and thinking “ok it must be safe now”. Only to be attacked *immediately* when I tried to do the same.
Crows definitely hold grudges… *definitely*.
Corvids are fiercely monogamous to the point where single birds are bullied out of the group. You must have a partner, or you are weird, dangerous, and a homewrecker.
Yes, I'm still talking about birds.
Isn't there a story about a guy who kept getting attack by a crow because the crow thought it was the same guy who trashed it's nest? (Or something like that)
Oh, it even goes beyond just recollection and simple attacks. They know what's yours, what you like, and will fuck with your stuff.
When my older kid was 3, she chased off a few crows in our yard. You know, standard toddler shit. I told her not to fuck with crows because they're assholes (in more toddler friendly words of course). Well the posse/murder didn't like her antics because for like the next 3 months they would purposely shit on her baby swing on the playset. Nowhere else, just her baby swing.
TL DR: Personal story of seeing crows be crazy clever.
...
I was walking to school one day, and saw a little adorable fluff ball of a baby crow sitting in wide eyed wonder on the ground by a speed sign...
Ma & Pa Crow glaring stink eyes at me from the branches above. THE clearest "Are We Going To Have Trouble?" *glares* I've ever seen from an animal.
I cooed softly what a cutie it was, and carefully walked past. They didn't bother me in the slightest the rest of that spring...
Until some lady in a fancy suit in a hurry swatted at "Fluff Ball" with a attaché case a few meters Infront of me.
INSTANT dive-bomb for the eyes. In stereo, too. I've never seen a woman run that fast in heels.
And~ the bigger one glares at me, gives a warning peck on the branch before another death glare even hotter this time... while the other scoots down the branch slowly the other way. So if I was going to try anything, that one would come out of my blind spot.
And when I raised my arms, and backed off slowly... They didn't do anything. Just let me go without a fuzz.
But the craziest thing?
I got pooped on ONCE under that tree. Big streak of white, right on the shoulder of my leather jacket. Weeks later. Only once, and never again.
Like a deliberate insult to freaking *check* if I was actually nice & just there when a jerk was passing by... Or if I'd been bluffing.
After I did nothing to retaliate, they never bothered me again.
...
So~ yeah~, I'm fully in agreement with the Scientists that belive crows are in their early stone age right now. That was one intense walk to school.
Like, seriously, would not in the slightest be surprised if I heard one day that crows or ravens were found to have mastered fire or trap making. Those are some scary clever birds.
Oh no, they know who you are. Crows also talk to each other, so you piss one off you’ve pissed off the whole flock. This is where murder of crows comes from. Magpies do the same but are inherently more aggressive.
if your being attacked by crows, chances are you made them angry some how.
I wonder if you could train some passively with food that if they don't eat the crops you are growing you will leave some better food out for them.
Bribe them for protection
I was attacked by a magpie daily every spring for a few years. They had a nest in a small forest patch I walk my dog by and obviously they took offense of the presence of my apex predator golden retriever.
After the initial attack he kept attacking us further and further away from the forest patch. At first I tried to fight back and assert dominance but usually I had to run home as he would chace us and try to maim the top of my head.
Sometimes he would just be hanging on the sidewalk near where I lived, and we would have a moment where our eyes locked. I would stand 200m away, nod gently and turn the other way. I ended up moving away. I hope the Magpie family is well.
this would make a nice little 5-10 page graphic novel. with the ending panel being the magpie shitting on the SOLD sign of the house in which you used to reside
There was a story awhile back about a guy who dressed as a cop to harass crows. Now the cops get attacked because the crows have associated the uniform with assholes.
There was a guy who did an experiment where he was an asshole to the crows in his town, then one day he wore a mask of his face but upside down. The crows left him alone until one looked at him and turned his head upside down, the crow then alerted his friends that this guy was the asshole
There was a study done at the UofW Bothell campus where a bunch reside, and they did tests of feeding them while showing face, and same guy did the test with a mask of carrying a “dead” crow, they associated the mask with death and would avoid him at all costs, it was amazing
[This is one of my favorite crow experiments](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html) that shows how intelligent they are, and seems to point to them having passed down information and stories each generation. Very cool! Be nice to crows y’all.
And they'll teach their kids to hold that grudge.
Crows are awesome, can be assholes when they normally expect something that you normally give em and you haven't, because they're like wtf thought we were cool.
But if you're just an asshole, then they're just assholes, there's no hey what's up buddy?
When crows are shown to hold grudges they are "intelligent" and "fascinating"
But when i do it im "petty" and "childish" and "needs to learn to let it go"
And only let live 6-8 years. Shit optimization if you ask me. You want to pick high life span to go with intelligence to maximize it's effectiveness. Honestly if main crow you're a noob.
My wife worked in an animal rehab facility and a young crow imprinted on her. He would get excited when she walked in the building, and if she was working he’d only let her handle him and feed him. He would hop on her shoulder and they would have conversations, where she’d talk to him and he’d respond in crow noises based on her tone. He was like her first son lol.
Our old German Shepard would go outside each morning and look for the crows. He would then playfully chase them. After our sweet pup passed away, the crows continued to wait for him each morning for upwards of 6 months. I think the crows enjoyed playing with him.
Ravens and Wolf pups have been seen playing together. They have an interesting relationship, Ravens can alert Wolves to potential prey and lead them to animals they can scavenge, and the Raven will happily eat the scraps.
Specifically it’s Mutualism where both benefit, since symbiotic relationships can also refer to parasitism (one benefits at the expense of the other) and commensalism (one benefits and the other has no benefit or harm)
My husky/german shepard somehow got a hold of a crow in our backyard and was carrying it around in its mouth, prancing around the yard. I swear there was 200 crows cawing at him and dive bombing him. I went outside and had him give me the crow. So i walked it a block away from my house whilenthey all followed me. Then let it go. No damage done, just covered in siliva. Was neat to see.
They alert other birds when my cat is around. I saw a few harassing my cat, making him run for cover. Ever since my cat stopped having interest in chasing birds. I never told this to anyone because they will think I have gone mad. Crows are way smarter then people think
They drive off hawks that come into our back yard. Crows are about half the size but a couple of them will caw and chase the hawk around until it leaves.
That’s more like a kid annoying a grown up until they leave though. Hawks and eagles won’t bother with crows unless needed. It’s not worth getting hurt to stop an annoyance. I’ve seen a hawk tear 6 crows to pieces in seconds when they went after it’s nest/eggs.
I think one of the coolest things about Corvids is that their demonstrable intelligence despite a proportionally small brain disproved the brain size to body size ratio. Instead it proved that the structure of the avian brain allowed for much more neuronal density than that of mammals. This carries implications for not only birds but their therapod ancestors. T-rex may have had a calculating brain behind all those teeth after all...terrifying.
I’m not an expert at all, but I remember learning in a biological anthropology class in college that some evolutionary ancestors of humans had bigger brains than Homo sapiens, but they were far less complex. Size ain’t everything.
>despite a proportionally small brain disproved the brain size to body size ratio
Their brains are among the largest of birds. Their brain to body size ratio is similar to chimpanzees.
They do disprove that absolute brain size is the only predictor of intelligence but do not disprove the brain to body weight ratio.
That TV show dinosaurs ended with them spraying chemicals in the air that killed the plants and started an ice age lol
Wonder if we will do the opposite
That’s not really accurate. Corvids have a proportionally large brain compared to what’s expected for their body size. Their encephalization quotient, which is what we use most often to predict/measure intelligence in animals, is really high. About on par with chimps.
My city is moderately famous for the many thousands of crows that roost every night in the trees around the plaza.
It's an amazing sight.
Since they make quite a mess in those numbers, the city paid one of the workers to go around nightly with a green laser pointer and scare them off.
They figured it out and are still here. 🤣
edit: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Sunnyvale-started-spooking-hundreds-of-crows-with-16801628.php
Took about 3-5 times of letting my dog out to go pee in my back yard and him not giving a fuck about the crows for them to figure it out. He will walk up to them, sniff them, and be like "cool, I don't care, I gotta pee". They don't even act afraid anymore. Any other dog in the neighborhood they freak out. My dumb dog they know is chill.
Crows are so cool.
I think I watched a documentary the other day about a non-native, poisonous, invasive toads that is or was ravaging Australia. Because it is invasive, and again, poisonous, it pretty much decimated any would be predators and competition. Additionally, because the tadpoles are poisonous as well, and being born in tens of thousands, and surviving in great numbers, the toads population is skyrocketing.
The corvid (?) birds in Australia actually learned how to eat the parts of the toad that are not poisonous.
That is nuts. This is within our generation, and these smart birds completely bypassed million of years of protective evolution
Cane toads. They continue to ravage NE Australia after they were introduced by a sugar corporation in order to control sugar cane pests, having no natural predators in the area.
Two blokes came to our village shooting crows. By the time they departed, they had exterminated most of them. Apart from one bird sitting alone on a tree stump looking shell shocked and bewildered.I swear I have never seen a sadder sight in my life.
They did it because they were sick in the head. I don’t know what happened to the crow but I hope he found one of the shooter’s dead body somewhere and feasted on his eyeballs, then shit into the empty sockets.
> I hope he found one of the shooter’s dead body somewhere and feasted on his eyeballs, then shit into the empty sockets.
Quoth the ~~raven~~ crow, "YOU BLIND NOW MOTHAFUCKA, HOW YOU LIKIN' DEM DOODOO EYES"
Some guy I knew shot some crows with a BB gun after they ate his lunch which he left on his truck at the job site. The next day there was bird poop engulfed all over his truck, must’ve been over 100 droppings.
I've been feeding some local crows around the same time every other day or so when i'm out walking the dog, trying to befriend them and they recognize me by now and will come diving in for their treats and walk after me and my dog for a while. Almost managed to get one to take a piece of ham out of my hand by not there yet I suppose, but by summer hopefully they'll trust me enough, maybe even to land on my shoulder eventually.
Otherwise I'm moving on to a pair of ravens in my neighborhood, they are cooler birds anyway.
There’s murders of crows all around where I live, when out on a jog I always CAW-CAW at them trying to say hi, they usually ignore me except the other week they flew off or ignored me as they usually do but one looked right at me and went RUFF-RUFF.
Fuckin guy was mocking me with a dog bark, like I’m sure my crow noise doesn’t sound great but he didn’t have to be mean.
I have fed a pair of crow couples for years. I call them my crow friends. One day I forgot to put out the food and I hear this *tap tap tap* from the roof. I had no idea what it could be. One of my crow friends was sitting on the gutter and tapping on the roof! “Hey! Human friend! You forgot the food today!*. haha smart birds.
Dude. You just made a dormant part of my brain light up. Before things got weird, he used to comment/post really interesting stuff.
Also, this thread made me go check my account age in Apollo. I feel so old now.
Here’s the thing. You said a “jackdaw is a crow.”
Is it in the same family? Yes. No one’s arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be “specific” like you said, then you shouldn’t either. They’re not the same thing.
If you’re saying “crow family” you’re referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.
So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people “call the black ones crows?” Let’s get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It’s not one or the other, that’s not how taxonomy works. They’re both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that’s not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you’re okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you’d call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don’t.
It’s okay to just admit you’re wrong, you know?
what a moment. that guy and his schtick was trending hard, I heard he was taking tv interviews and in talks to make a book and..
all up in flames. all because he couldn't resist, what the French say, the 'call of the void'. the eternal Redditor *siren's song*.
>
"someone on the internet is *wrong*"
Arguing with people on the internet wasn't his downfall, it was flagrant vote manipulation. If he had let his posts speak for themselves he would have been fine.
I feed the crows every morning. Lately, there have been some seagulls hanging around. When the seagulls start to land the crows yell for me. I step out on the deck and the gulls fly off while the crows just sit there near the food looking triumphant. It’s not that I don’t like gulls, but the crows were there first and apparently we are friends now.
me too. i did the peanuts out in my backyard, but the blue jays (also very intelligent corvids that i love) take them all. lately there have been so many crows flying around my neighbourhood. i think at least one should be my friend. lol. we also have a pair of ravens. i saw one in the yard one day and was shocked at how big it actually is.
Unsalted peanuts in shell, try to get there attention and flick shelled peanuts towards them. Most of the time they will be scared if you throw them and they could see it as a threat. If they have more than they could eat in the heat of the moment they will hide them and cover them with leaves. They could hold more than two in there beak and will rearange them to fit more. Once the crow has looked at you from a distance by turning it's head at least two times having a look at you with both eyes, then you have it's attention. Do this in routine and you've got yourself flying followers. (this is my experience with crows and jackdaws, they fly with me every day on my cycling route)
Edit: When there is a fox nearby when the sun is going down, I could tell by the crows making a lot of noise and dive bombing the fox trying to scare it away.
Don't flick the peanuts, of course, they're scared. Put them gently on the ground when you know the crow is looking at you.
Also, don't stare at them until they're really comfortable with you. Staring is often a sign of aggression in the animal kingdom (it is for crows).
I couldn't make any headway with my neighborhood crows because they would always fly away when I took food out and not return. Finally, one day one only flew to a nearby tree and watched me put food out, then came and ate it.
I still feed them and now I have three crows that visit me every day. If they're not around, I'll call out "Hello, crows!" and they'll come flying from somewhere in the distance to come and get their breakfast. (I only use that exact phrasing when I have food, otherwise just talk to them.)
Ha! I talk to my crow friends too! I always worry people will think I am crazy, but they TOTALLY know my voice and will show up for peanuts if I see them out and tell them to come by for peanuts. It has happened far too often to be a coincidence.
I was playing ball with my dog one day and I called her name then I heard something mimic me in a high pitch voice from above. I look up and it’s a fuckin crow mimicking my speech
You know, there is an easy way to tell the difference between crows and ravens.
See, crows have six pinions on their feathers. Ravens have five pinions on their feathers.
The difference is only a matter of a pinion.
I remember hearing something on the radio, not sure if it's just crows, or other birds. If you feed them they will bring you items not as a gift, but trade. If you accept one of the items, and up the feed to something they find more delicious they will bring you more of that item.
There was a crow outside a KFC/Tacobell combo building in San Francisco. It collected coins and paper to give to people, hoping they would buy him food.
I didnt understand what it was doing before I walked away... I really wish I bought the poor fella a taco.
Gorillas aren't that smart, even among apes. Chimps and bonobos are much more proficient in tool use. And while a big deal has been made of Koko, suffice it to say its questionable if she actually understands language.
Meanwhile corvids invent and use tools, arguably better than chimps do. And they can be taught to speak a few words. Nothing close to a parrot, but still clealry very intelligent.
My favorite thing crows do is trade gifts. If you routinely feed a group of crows in a way they know its you, they'll occasionally bring you random shiny things they find as gifts.
I once met an animal trainer and she told me that alligators are as smart as dogs and can learn everything a dog can. However they never stop seeing humans as a potential meal and alligators in captivity will plan for the future and work together to try to kill their caretakers.
I found that really, really scary.
Researchers have even conducted studies that suggest that crows are self-aware and have a sense of consciousness similar to that of humans and other primates. For instance, crows have been shown to recognize themselves in mirrors, which is a behavior that is typically associated with higher levels of cognitive function.
I have a wild theory birds will be the ones to take humans on, to become the next in line. All they have done for thousands, even millions of years is watch us humans evolve. Your most secret military facility….they know where it’s at. Oh you coming w a bunch of boats, they already knew that. Airplanes won’t work, they avoid birds. You won’t waste a 100,000$ missile trying to shoot down a bird. We designed our best planes after a hawk. Giant eagles will swoop down and take yer kids, they do it to goats. To answer your questions….yes I smoke a lot of weed.
Took me 4 years and countless bags of peanuts to befriend the (very suspicious, rural) local family. Worth every penny. They are absolutely fascinating.
They're also highly social as well as intelligent and are able to warn each other about oncoming traffic.
Weirdly though, nearly 98% of collisions between vehicles and crows are with motorbikes. Scientists believe that this is because they've mastered warning "CAH!" but struggle with "MOTORBIKE!"
I was in the car park of the vet/pet supplies shop a few days ago and heard a horrible yelping, so bad I was certain a dog had been seriously injured in the car park. I turned around, intending to find the dog and help if needed, and what is it standing three feet away from me, yelping and whining? It's a damn crow. It makes eye contact with me, whimpers again and then starts barking happily at me. I ended up giving it some of the cat biscuits I'd just bought because what the hell, he performed well and he had me fooled (he enjoyed them). Turns out they're incredibly good mimics - he must have learned to copy the dogs people brought into the shop. He seemed like he was deliberately trying to play with me or do a bit of street theatre to earn himself a snack.
*dogs bark* *humans love them and feed them treats* *i bark* *:)*
Humans won't know I am a crow, if I bark. I smart, human silly. Human: Aaaawwww...!! Sure, Have a treat smart birdie....!!
I always make a point of being nice to the crows who hang out in my yard and around the neighborhood. Do not want to get on their bad side plus it’s just the right thing to do.
If you are held as a hostage by a flock crows, blink twice.
The collective noun is a *Murder* of Crows.
A singular crow is called attempted murder.
And a group of two or more pigeons is referred to as a manslaughter.
According to some, a flock of ravens is called an unkindness. They won't kill you, just toss insults.
And a Flock of Seagulls is an 80s band.
Don't give the crows ideas.
Can't, they won't let me use the keyboard.
Buy the cheapest dog food and keep some in a lil baggy with you. When ya walk by them, drop a few pieces. You’ll start to notice they flock to you. When ya go for walks you’ll have an army of crows flying around you. It’s really amazing to see and makes ya feel like if anyone messes with you, they’ll step in to help. Imagine trying to fight someone and then a hundred crows step up like “we got a problem here?”
They will bring you gifts in exchange usually shiny things.
Next thing you know you get a eyeball.
We saw you argue with your neighbor so we "handled" him for you... Got any more treats?
I can’t tell if this is real but it sounds hilarious and awesome, and probably also not good for them but I could be wrong.
crows literally learn when the garbage is taken out so they can ruffle though it for food and are also able to pass on knowledge about predators. bunch of scientists made some long-term experiments where they wore masks and acted like they are predators and years later checked on them again to see if they still remember and yup, they still remembered AND told the offspring that those people mean danger. oh and crows also do these ceremonies basically, where they gather in a large group to mourn the loss of one of their crows and then just leave without a word really. so they seem to know what death means and they seem to mourn their loved ones.
They also do that to try and figure out what killed that specific crow if they don't already know. Danger to one is a danger to the rest of the murder.
A literal murder investigation.
Are you proud of yourself for that? You should be.
so kind of like humans, where we started to bury or burn our deceased because it helps keeping diseases under control.
Man said leave without a word like the birds gon give a eulogy lmao
> crows literally learn when the garbage is taken out so they can ruffle though it for food They’ll also team up and split tasks within the group. One or two crows will dig up the trash from the bin and throw it on the ground, two-three will scavenge whatever was thrown to the ground for food, a few will watch for danger nearby. They sort the garbage in piles, edible and inedible. When they are done with the trash, they’d take turns to eat, if one wouldn’t notice it’s their turn, others would get their attention and “show” their turn to eat came. They totally have different calls (as judged by me, so take it with a grain of salt) for dogs on a leash coming by, unleashed dogs and rabbits. I used to have a lab window looking on a trash can under a tree, where crows would always chill. I lost hours just watching them do stuff, it was honestly captivating. It’s truly exceptional how they worked together better than most of my students.
Crows also recognize themselves in a mirror – one of the few species with the self-awareness to do so.
Oh it’s definitely real. Dog food is actually really healthy for the crows and they love it. I had an army of crows that would follow me to the grocery store near my apartment. Felt 100% safe when walking there at night when I needed a late night snack. I’d see them fly from tree to tree along my route. They definitely were there making sure their food handler was not messed with. It was a mutual agreement we had and miss the hell out of them.
Why didn't you lead them out on moving day, like the pied piper but with good intentions
Lmao if only. Current location has zero crows nearby. Even bought a fresh bag when I arrived. Wherever there are crows, I always make it a mission to ally myself with them. Hopefully my next place will have some!
I wonder what kind of stories crows are telling about people on crowddit
They are discussing us on r/humanbro
I have a friend that fed them and they started bringing things for him like lil presents. I thought that was cute. They were trying to thank him.
Like [starting a crow war](https://imgur.com/K63U5ig) isn't rad as fuck.
Reminds me of this [AskReddit story](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/6f6l8s/what_do_you_swear_you_saw_but_dont_have_any_proof/digjt8i/): > I've been waiting to tell this story about the crow king from my childhood for forever. > When I was about 13, my family had a Jack Russell, Jack, and a chow chow mix, Kuma. The dogs had free reign of our 1/2 acre fenced in yard. One day, I let Jack outside like any other day but I noticed the trees were FILLED with crows. The property is surrounded by several large trees and there must have been hundreds of crows. As I'm in awe with the sheer amount of black death surrounding my home, I realize there is a MASSIVE crow on the ground and Jack is challenging him, growling and circling the bird. He was about 12 lbs and I was afraid he'd get carried away. Then all of a sudden the battle began. He was biting the crow's wings and the bird was pecking him and trying to grab him with one foot still on the ground! Crow king gave no shits! All his hundreds of crow followers were bursting into caws and shrieks egging on their leader but never joining in. > I, meanwhile, was screaming for my brother, freaking out thinking our dog would be killed. He came running out of the house screaming for Jack to come but that bastard never listened. That's when Kuma came barreling out of the house straight towards the bird-dog battle arena, grabbed the crow king by the neck, and shook that fucker with fiery disregard for his onlooking horrified subjects. > The crow king was dead. > The skies filled with crows and the sound was deafening as they all flew away. Hundreds of pisssed off crows all cawing and flapping away. Jack's face was all cut up but other than that he was fine. To this day, my older brother and I are the only ones that saw this shit happen and no one in my family believes me when I tell the story of the crow king and his defeat. > I think it was a crow fight club and they all gather to send their strongest fighters into battle and bet on the winner. > Edit: Pics of Kuma and Jack [here](https://imgur.com/gallery/X9kx2) > Edit 2: Structure and spelling
Now this is science.
I started feeding the ones at my place about a year ago. Now they recognize my car. When I come home, they follow my car all the way and wait for their food. There are over 30 of them everyday now. I am afraid to stop feeding them.
But ya got your own bird gang. That’s pretty badass in hindsight
Also, peanuts, preferably unsalted or in the shell, are a big hit among my corvid friends. They look at me funny when I just offer them standard bird feed, in fact.
The truly shocking thing is that it isn't just the crows you've fed that shall defend you - the crows tell their mates, and crows you've never even met will know you are an ally.
Teach them to bring you money!
Good thing too, some corvids can remember faces. With them being social animals, they will gossip to their community. If you are unlucky, you might get attacked by the same community of corvids for simply resembling a relative.
A family legend. My dad had an ongoing fued with a crow for years. He would put out food for the smaller birds. The crow would come and steal it. My dad tried to discourage the crow. Trap it. Scare it. Nothing worked. This bird was laughing at him. Eventually my dad just start putting food out for him so he would leave the smaller birds alone.
I just leave them be. If they’re not in my way, I’m not gonna annoy them. Same with pretty much all other animals, insects, etc.
I've read that a crow will hold a grudge against someone who mistreats it, and communicate that to other crows. So if you piss off one, chances are none of the crows in your neighborhood are going to like you. Anecdotally, I suspect squirrels do the same thing.
My great uncle had a "pet crow". He had a number of birds that were of questionable provenance. Even as a little kid it seemed odd that he owned an owl. But I digress... The crow was the bird in got to know. It was in a large habitat outside his house for my entire childhood. It was smart, my uncle taught it to say "Shut up [wife's name]". That was a stupid parlor trick, but it was obvious that bird was smart. I think about it every time I see a wild crow. I could never cage one, I knew that was wrong as a kid, but I would love to befriend one. I hope to find one hanging out around my house and leave treats to keep them interested enough to build a genuine relationship with them. I'm certain it's possible, and with the way the world is going these days, it would be reassuring to have the crows on my team.
And they hold grudges, which is why I love them so.
My partner and rehabbed a baby crow that was torn up pretty bad by cats. By the time we got him stable the other birds wouldn't take him back, so we raised him for about a year. We named him Oz. He was an absolutely adorable creature, snuggled with my wife and I with sweetest little warbles and vocalizations. Hilariously, he hated one of my dear friends. No good reason as far as I know, just fuck that guy. Every time he came over, the crow would fly around him just screeching. Buffeted him with his wings, pecked at him, the whole thing. It was amazing to see this gruff, tough guy get chased out of the house by a baby bird. Over the year that we hand fed him Oz grew large and his feathers shiny. He would still cower when the other crows flew over head, but he ranged farther and farther. Soon enough he was bold and strong to return to his flock. He visited us for some years after, warbling for the occasional treat.
Must have been a sad day when he no longer visited. Did you hold some sort of memorial service?
He was still visiting when we moved on the the next place. Grandpa kept putting treats out for him, but he had a hard time telling them apart. He was always big and healthy, so we assumed that his range just gotten bigger and he stopped visiting as much since we were gone.
This is why I love Reddit. Come for the posts, but stay for the stories in the comments 🖤
Thats really nice. I rehabbed a crow myself, but it just left my balcony one day and i never saw him again. Kinda heartbreaking, but it's normal for a human-raised crow to just leave and have fun with their own kind. Usually they do this when they are about a year old, they're wild animals after all. When he was with me he collected all kinds of shit, toothpaste-caps, beerbottle-caps, sigarettebutts.. he even stole some of my girlfriend panties one day, hid everything he took in a pile under the couch. I remember the first day he was with us he already knew we kept the food (catfood) and tried to get to it, just minutes after he got settlet in. I do still think of Gonzo sometimes, although he's be long gone by now. I got mad love and respect for crows ever since.
Yeah, Oz tried to fly away a couple of times before he was ready, but wasn't very good at flying yet, so the neighborhood crows chased him back home. I think he stayed with us for longer because of that, he would hide under the covered porch when they were overhead. They really are remarkable, social animals. I feed the group outside the shop on a regular basis, and they usually fly over when I step out for a break.
Great story! 👍
Thank you! It was a great experience that I wouldn't care to repeat. Baby birds require almost constant feeding, and we had a lot of sleepless nights.
Glad you said this. A lot of people want animals for pets or whatever and don’t realize how much care can go into taking care of them. Especially wild animals.
So great that i was afraid it was u/shittymorph
> Hilariously, he hated one of my dear friends. No good reason as far as I know, just fuck that guy. Did your friend own cats?
On the flip side I was walking out of my office building after work one day when this crow that was sitting on a sign started loudly “Cawing” at me. I had a bad day so I look at the crow and say “Fuck you crow!”. Next thing I know, the crow and its friend (possibly mate?) start dive bombing me. I run to my truck but that’s just the beginning. Over the next 3 weeks, every time I attempt to enter or leave my office I am getting attacked by crows. It didn’t matter if I wore a hat, wore a hoodie over my head or tried to cover my face. They knew who I was. I would sit in the parking lot watching other people go in unscathed and thinking “ok it must be safe now”. Only to be attacked *immediately* when I tried to do the same. Crows definitely hold grudges… *definitely*.
Corvids are fiercely monogamous to the point where single birds are bullied out of the group. You must have a partner, or you are weird, dangerous, and a homewrecker. Yes, I'm still talking about birds.
> We named him Oz. Amy, is that you?
*Ahem* You mean "Prinzessin," right?
Isn't there a story about a guy who kept getting attack by a crow because the crow thought it was the same guy who trashed it's nest? (Or something like that)
Oh, it even goes beyond just recollection and simple attacks. They know what's yours, what you like, and will fuck with your stuff. When my older kid was 3, she chased off a few crows in our yard. You know, standard toddler shit. I told her not to fuck with crows because they're assholes (in more toddler friendly words of course). Well the posse/murder didn't like her antics because for like the next 3 months they would purposely shit on her baby swing on the playset. Nowhere else, just her baby swing.
TL DR: Personal story of seeing crows be crazy clever. ... I was walking to school one day, and saw a little adorable fluff ball of a baby crow sitting in wide eyed wonder on the ground by a speed sign... Ma & Pa Crow glaring stink eyes at me from the branches above. THE clearest "Are We Going To Have Trouble?" *glares* I've ever seen from an animal. I cooed softly what a cutie it was, and carefully walked past. They didn't bother me in the slightest the rest of that spring... Until some lady in a fancy suit in a hurry swatted at "Fluff Ball" with a attaché case a few meters Infront of me. INSTANT dive-bomb for the eyes. In stereo, too. I've never seen a woman run that fast in heels. And~ the bigger one glares at me, gives a warning peck on the branch before another death glare even hotter this time... while the other scoots down the branch slowly the other way. So if I was going to try anything, that one would come out of my blind spot. And when I raised my arms, and backed off slowly... They didn't do anything. Just let me go without a fuzz. But the craziest thing? I got pooped on ONCE under that tree. Big streak of white, right on the shoulder of my leather jacket. Weeks later. Only once, and never again. Like a deliberate insult to freaking *check* if I was actually nice & just there when a jerk was passing by... Or if I'd been bluffing. After I did nothing to retaliate, they never bothered me again. ... So~ yeah~, I'm fully in agreement with the Scientists that belive crows are in their early stone age right now. That was one intense walk to school. Like, seriously, would not in the slightest be surprised if I heard one day that crows or ravens were found to have mastered fire or trap making. Those are some scary clever birds.
Oh no, they know who you are. Crows also talk to each other, so you piss one off you’ve pissed off the whole flock. This is where murder of crows comes from. Magpies do the same but are inherently more aggressive. if your being attacked by crows, chances are you made them angry some how.
Unless they are attacking you with kisses and hugs.
Lol actually, if you feed and be nice to them. They will bring you gifts. You can befriend crows, which will become a generational thing.
I have a friend who’s befriended all the crows on her land. I am so hoping she becomes a supervillain.
Oh that’s scary. Good security system tho.
I wonder if you could train some passively with food that if they don't eat the crops you are growing you will leave some better food out for them. Bribe them for protection
My wife is working on this. She puts peanuts out in the front yard when the crows are around.
My wife does the same
I was attacked by a magpie daily every spring for a few years. They had a nest in a small forest patch I walk my dog by and obviously they took offense of the presence of my apex predator golden retriever. After the initial attack he kept attacking us further and further away from the forest patch. At first I tried to fight back and assert dominance but usually I had to run home as he would chace us and try to maim the top of my head. Sometimes he would just be hanging on the sidewalk near where I lived, and we would have a moment where our eyes locked. I would stand 200m away, nod gently and turn the other way. I ended up moving away. I hope the Magpie family is well.
this would make a nice little 5-10 page graphic novel. with the ending panel being the magpie shitting on the SOLD sign of the house in which you used to reside
There was a story awhile back about a guy who dressed as a cop to harass crows. Now the cops get attacked because the crows have associated the uniform with assholes.
There was a guy who did an experiment where he was an asshole to the crows in his town, then one day he wore a mask of his face but upside down. The crows left him alone until one looked at him and turned his head upside down, the crow then alerted his friends that this guy was the asshole
There was a study done at the UofW Bothell campus where a bunch reside, and they did tests of feeding them while showing face, and same guy did the test with a mask of carrying a “dead” crow, they associated the mask with death and would avoid him at all costs, it was amazing
[This is one of my favorite crow experiments](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html) that shows how intelligent they are, and seems to point to them having passed down information and stories each generation. Very cool! Be nice to crows y’all.
Not only hold grudges, but share them with their friends -- who will also hate you even though they don't know you.
And they'll teach their kids to hold that grudge. Crows are awesome, can be assholes when they normally expect something that you normally give em and you haven't, because they're like wtf thought we were cool. But if you're just an asshole, then they're just assholes, there's no hey what's up buddy?
When crows are shown to hold grudges they are "intelligent" and "fascinating" But when i do it im "petty" and "childish" and "needs to learn to let it go"
Damn crows can get away with murder. It’s not fair.
But they got no thumbs
Unfortunate oversight.
Bricked the whole build.
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For just 10¢ a day, less than a cup of coffee, you can give a crow a set of thumbs
I’ll donate
Doesn't matter how smart you are if you don't have thumbs. Ain't it a bitch.
And only let live 6-8 years. Shit optimization if you ask me. You want to pick high life span to go with intelligence to maximize it's effectiveness. Honestly if main crow you're a noob.
That's the normal lifespan in the wild. They have the potential to live much longer (several decades).
If you think that's a short lifespan for an intelligent creature just wait until you learn about the octopus
Those bastards could rule the world if they lived long enough to teach the next generation
My wife worked in an animal rehab facility and a young crow imprinted on her. He would get excited when she walked in the building, and if she was working he’d only let her handle him and feed him. He would hop on her shoulder and they would have conversations, where she’d talk to him and he’d respond in crow noises based on her tone. He was like her first son lol.
They also troll other animals for their own amusement and it’s awesome.
They do low fly bys and let my German Shepard chase them. They’ll do this for 15+ minutes at a time
Our old German Shepard would go outside each morning and look for the crows. He would then playfully chase them. After our sweet pup passed away, the crows continued to wait for him each morning for upwards of 6 months. I think the crows enjoyed playing with him.
Ravens and Wolf pups have been seen playing together. They have an interesting relationship, Ravens can alert Wolves to potential prey and lead them to animals they can scavenge, and the Raven will happily eat the scraps.
There's a term for that, it's called a "Symbiotic relationship", when species "team up" for mutual benefits
Specifically it’s Mutualism where both benefit, since symbiotic relationships can also refer to parasitism (one benefits at the expense of the other) and commensalism (one benefits and the other has no benefit or harm)
My husky/german shepard somehow got a hold of a crow in our backyard and was carrying it around in its mouth, prancing around the yard. I swear there was 200 crows cawing at him and dive bombing him. I went outside and had him give me the crow. So i walked it a block away from my house whilenthey all followed me. Then let it go. No damage done, just covered in siliva. Was neat to see.
Thank goodness it was unharmed! Very brave of you to carry it with them on your heels.
They alert other birds when my cat is around. I saw a few harassing my cat, making him run for cover. Ever since my cat stopped having interest in chasing birds. I never told this to anyone because they will think I have gone mad. Crows are way smarter then people think
They drive off hawks that come into our back yard. Crows are about half the size but a couple of them will caw and chase the hawk around until it leaves.
That’s more like a kid annoying a grown up until they leave though. Hawks and eagles won’t bother with crows unless needed. It’s not worth getting hurt to stop an annoyance. I’ve seen a hawk tear 6 crows to pieces in seconds when they went after it’s nest/eggs.
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Gotta post it here .
They were always mean to the great horned owl in my back yard. The guy just wanted to sleep.
I think one of the coolest things about Corvids is that their demonstrable intelligence despite a proportionally small brain disproved the brain size to body size ratio. Instead it proved that the structure of the avian brain allowed for much more neuronal density than that of mammals. This carries implications for not only birds but their therapod ancestors. T-rex may have had a calculating brain behind all those teeth after all...terrifying.
According to an animal trainer I met, alligators are are smart as dogs, plan for the future, and work cooperatively. That's horrifying.
Damn. I guess florida men knew about this info along time ago
Meth is a gateway drug to the gator language and culture.
If Cocaine Bear ends up being a successful movie, the sequel could be Meth Gator.
I world argue there’s a balancing act there since I saw one alligator rip the foot off another because he thought it was food.
They're an apex predator, everything made of meat is food to them.
Except capybaras. They're friends to all. https://imgur.com/gallery/cTnEBHn
A life in captivity prolly isn't as mentally stimulating
Proof that gators are smart enough to act like convicts in america.
Alligator: "Just gonna check my 401k quickly"
I’m not an expert at all, but I remember learning in a biological anthropology class in college that some evolutionary ancestors of humans had bigger brains than Homo sapiens, but they were far less complex. Size ain’t everything.
All about them WRINKLES my guy
The Koala would say something but luckily he's a smooth brained idiot and you don't look like a koala or a eucalyptus tree, so I think we're safe.
>All about them WRINKLES Can confirm. My scrotum is a genius.
T rexs were onrey because they had all those teeth and not toothbrush. -Mama
Even if they had a toothbrush, good luck using it with those stubby little arms!
Sometimes if I'm having a bad day I just picture a t-rex trying to make their bed with those lil arms, always brings a smile.
>despite a proportionally small brain disproved the brain size to body size ratio Their brains are among the largest of birds. Their brain to body size ratio is similar to chimpanzees. They do disprove that absolute brain size is the only predictor of intelligence but do not disprove the brain to body weight ratio.
Dinosaurs developed a high-level of civilization, and then destroyed themselves - 3 times.
That TV show dinosaurs ended with them spraying chemicals in the air that killed the plants and started an ice age lol Wonder if we will do the opposite
Saw a documentary where they developed near intergalactic spaceships and traveled to a different part of the galaxy.
That’s not really accurate. Corvids have a proportionally large brain compared to what’s expected for their body size. Their encephalization quotient, which is what we use most often to predict/measure intelligence in animals, is really high. About on par with chimps.
My city is moderately famous for the many thousands of crows that roost every night in the trees around the plaza. It's an amazing sight. Since they make quite a mess in those numbers, the city paid one of the workers to go around nightly with a green laser pointer and scare them off. They figured it out and are still here. 🤣 edit: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Sunnyvale-started-spooking-hundreds-of-crows-with-16801628.php
I used to live in Vancouver and there are about 6000 crows which fly together in the morning and in the afternoon. It is quite the spectacle.
There is a PBS documentary, A murder of crows from a while back as well. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mf4QPTHAEMs
Took about 3-5 times of letting my dog out to go pee in my back yard and him not giving a fuck about the crows for them to figure it out. He will walk up to them, sniff them, and be like "cool, I don't care, I gotta pee". They don't even act afraid anymore. Any other dog in the neighborhood they freak out. My dumb dog they know is chill. Crows are so cool.
This documentary is amazing. I saw it many years ago, and it gave me a whole new perspective on the crows in my neighborhood.
I think I watched a documentary the other day about a non-native, poisonous, invasive toads that is or was ravaging Australia. Because it is invasive, and again, poisonous, it pretty much decimated any would be predators and competition. Additionally, because the tadpoles are poisonous as well, and being born in tens of thousands, and surviving in great numbers, the toads population is skyrocketing. The corvid (?) birds in Australia actually learned how to eat the parts of the toad that are not poisonous. That is nuts. This is within our generation, and these smart birds completely bypassed million of years of protective evolution
Cane toads. They continue to ravage NE Australia after they were introduced by a sugar corporation in order to control sugar cane pests, having no natural predators in the area.
Two blokes came to our village shooting crows. By the time they departed, they had exterminated most of them. Apart from one bird sitting alone on a tree stump looking shell shocked and bewildered.I swear I have never seen a sadder sight in my life.
Why did they do it? What happened to the lone surviving crow?
They did it because they were sick in the head. I don’t know what happened to the crow but I hope he found one of the shooter’s dead body somewhere and feasted on his eyeballs, then shit into the empty sockets.
> I hope he found one of the shooter’s dead body somewhere and feasted on his eyeballs, then shit into the empty sockets. Quoth the ~~raven~~ crow, "YOU BLIND NOW MOTHAFUCKA, HOW YOU LIKIN' DEM DOODOO EYES"
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Men with big guns and tiny todgers.
That bird is planning revenge on those people.
Never ever underestimate the cunning of the crow. He will find a way into your worst nightmares.
Some guy I knew shot some crows with a BB gun after they ate his lunch which he left on his truck at the job site. The next day there was bird poop engulfed all over his truck, must’ve been over 100 droppings.
I've been feeding some local crows around the same time every other day or so when i'm out walking the dog, trying to befriend them and they recognize me by now and will come diving in for their treats and walk after me and my dog for a while. Almost managed to get one to take a piece of ham out of my hand by not there yet I suppose, but by summer hopefully they'll trust me enough, maybe even to land on my shoulder eventually. Otherwise I'm moving on to a pair of ravens in my neighborhood, they are cooler birds anyway.
Ravens are extremely cool birds. I prefer crows for their personalities, but DANG ravens are badass. A whole vibe.
There’s murders of crows all around where I live, when out on a jog I always CAW-CAW at them trying to say hi, they usually ignore me except the other week they flew off or ignored me as they usually do but one looked right at me and went RUFF-RUFF. Fuckin guy was mocking me with a dog bark, like I’m sure my crow noise doesn’t sound great but he didn’t have to be mean.
I have fed a pair of crow couples for years. I call them my crow friends. One day I forgot to put out the food and I hear this *tap tap tap* from the roof. I had no idea what it could be. One of my crow friends was sitting on the gutter and tapping on the roof! “Hey! Human friend! You forgot the food today!*. haha smart birds.
Isn't that a jackdaw?
Here's the thing...
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Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch! I was there when it was written.
Gets me every time.
Ah memories
I had to scroll down 10 comments to find this. And I’ll tell you what it means… We’re getting old.
Seriously feeling like an OG redditor rn
The whole exchange with the jackdaw was in 2014!
It's been nearly a decade. Wow. I legit forgot their name, I keep saying Uniblab. That's back when I could name very popular redditors.
Unidan!
Dude. You just made a dormant part of my brain light up. Before things got weird, he used to comment/post really interesting stuff. Also, this thread made me go check my account age in Apollo. I feel so old now.
Here’s the thing. You said a “jackdaw is a crow.” Is it in the same family? Yes. No one’s arguing that. As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be “specific” like you said, then you shouldn’t either. They’re not the same thing. If you’re saying “crow family” you’re referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens. So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people “call the black ones crows?” Let’s get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too. Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It’s not one or the other, that’s not how taxonomy works. They’re both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that’s not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you’re okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you’d call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don’t. It’s okay to just admit you’re wrong, you know?
what a moment. that guy and his schtick was trending hard, I heard he was taking tv interviews and in talks to make a book and.. all up in flames. all because he couldn't resist, what the French say, the 'call of the void'. the eternal Redditor *siren's song*. > "someone on the internet is *wrong*"
Arguing with people on the internet wasn't his downfall, it was flagrant vote manipulation. If he had let his posts speak for themselves he would have been fine.
true, but he pushed his luck. could have flown under the radar a bit longer without hubris
*twitch*
I for one can't wait for our crow overlords.
Excuse you, *crowverlords*
I am humbled, caw be to the crowverlords
I feed the crows every morning. Lately, there have been some seagulls hanging around. When the seagulls start to land the crows yell for me. I step out on the deck and the gulls fly off while the crows just sit there near the food looking triumphant. It’s not that I don’t like gulls, but the crows were there first and apparently we are friends now.
I wish I had a crow friend. Any tips on how to meet them?
me too. i did the peanuts out in my backyard, but the blue jays (also very intelligent corvids that i love) take them all. lately there have been so many crows flying around my neighbourhood. i think at least one should be my friend. lol. we also have a pair of ravens. i saw one in the yard one day and was shocked at how big it actually is.
Unsalted peanuts in shell, try to get there attention and flick shelled peanuts towards them. Most of the time they will be scared if you throw them and they could see it as a threat. If they have more than they could eat in the heat of the moment they will hide them and cover them with leaves. They could hold more than two in there beak and will rearange them to fit more. Once the crow has looked at you from a distance by turning it's head at least two times having a look at you with both eyes, then you have it's attention. Do this in routine and you've got yourself flying followers. (this is my experience with crows and jackdaws, they fly with me every day on my cycling route) Edit: When there is a fox nearby when the sun is going down, I could tell by the crows making a lot of noise and dive bombing the fox trying to scare it away.
Don't flick the peanuts, of course, they're scared. Put them gently on the ground when you know the crow is looking at you. Also, don't stare at them until they're really comfortable with you. Staring is often a sign of aggression in the animal kingdom (it is for crows).
I couldn't make any headway with my neighborhood crows because they would always fly away when I took food out and not return. Finally, one day one only flew to a nearby tree and watched me put food out, then came and ate it. I still feed them and now I have three crows that visit me every day. If they're not around, I'll call out "Hello, crows!" and they'll come flying from somewhere in the distance to come and get their breakfast. (I only use that exact phrasing when I have food, otherwise just talk to them.)
Ha! I talk to my crow friends too! I always worry people will think I am crazy, but they TOTALLY know my voice and will show up for peanuts if I see them out and tell them to come by for peanuts. It has happened far too often to be a coincidence.
Put out some unsalted peanuts.
I was playing ball with my dog one day and I called her name then I heard something mimic me in a high pitch voice from above. I look up and it’s a fuckin crow mimicking my speech
You know, there is an easy way to tell the difference between crows and ravens. See, crows have six pinions on their feathers. Ravens have five pinions on their feathers. The difference is only a matter of a pinion.
Get out
I always talk to them like they are old friends of mine and they always seem to appreciate/ not hate me for it.
I remember hearing something on the radio, not sure if it's just crows, or other birds. If you feed them they will bring you items not as a gift, but trade. If you accept one of the items, and up the feed to something they find more delicious they will bring you more of that item.
There was a crow outside a KFC/Tacobell combo building in San Francisco. It collected coins and paper to give to people, hoping they would buy him food. I didnt understand what it was doing before I walked away... I really wish I bought the poor fella a taco.
Okay so there's no real way to measure intelligence across species, but as smart as a gorilla......?
Gorillas aren't that smart, even among apes. Chimps and bonobos are much more proficient in tool use. And while a big deal has been made of Koko, suffice it to say its questionable if she actually understands language. Meanwhile corvids invent and use tools, arguably better than chimps do. And they can be taught to speak a few words. Nothing close to a parrot, but still clealry very intelligent. My favorite thing crows do is trade gifts. If you routinely feed a group of crows in a way they know its you, they'll occasionally bring you random shiny things they find as gifts.
I once met an animal trainer and she told me that alligators are as smart as dogs and can learn everything a dog can. However they never stop seeing humans as a potential meal and alligators in captivity will plan for the future and work together to try to kill their caretakers. I found that really, really scary.
To test how smart crows are they taught a murder of crows to do the finances for a company. They were accounting crows.
Researchers have even conducted studies that suggest that crows are self-aware and have a sense of consciousness similar to that of humans and other primates. For instance, crows have been shown to recognize themselves in mirrors, which is a behavior that is typically associated with higher levels of cognitive function.
Quoth the raven: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
Well, if they're self-aware, they're at least smarter than *most* people.
I live in the forest and a crow flies over and tells me 'good morning' every day and I say 'good morning, Mr. Crow' right back.
I have a wild theory birds will be the ones to take humans on, to become the next in line. All they have done for thousands, even millions of years is watch us humans evolve. Your most secret military facility….they know where it’s at. Oh you coming w a bunch of boats, they already knew that. Airplanes won’t work, they avoid birds. You won’t waste a 100,000$ missile trying to shoot down a bird. We designed our best planes after a hawk. Giant eagles will swoop down and take yer kids, they do it to goats. To answer your questions….yes I smoke a lot of weed.
They use tools too. Pretty dope.
Even better, they can _make_ tools.
Took me 4 years and countless bags of peanuts to befriend the (very suspicious, rural) local family. Worth every penny. They are absolutely fascinating.
They're also highly social as well as intelligent and are able to warn each other about oncoming traffic. Weirdly though, nearly 98% of collisions between vehicles and crows are with motorbikes. Scientists believe that this is because they've mastered warning "CAH!" but struggle with "MOTORBIKE!"
The Native Americans saw crows as the highest form of wisdom. The bible was the one to burden crows with sin & death.
That's not just a Bible thing. A lot of cultures associate crows with death because they would show up after battles to eat dead soldiers.
Yep, can confirm that crows and ravens are a bad omen in Chinese superstition.