“If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.”
~ Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
I love crows. I’ve always been kind to their kind and they know it. And they remember.
Is That a Caveman or Dick Cheney? Crows Know the Difference
In a creative experiment that relied on rubber masks of former Vice President Dick Cheney and other distinctive mugs, researchers have shown that American crows have an uncanny ability to pick a familiar human face out of a crowd. The study confirms some long-standing folklore about the acuity of one of North America’s most familiar birds—and offers new insight into how some wild animals may cope with living alongside people.
Friend or Foe? Crows Never Forget a Face, It Seems
The crows had not forgotten. They scolded people in the dangerous mask significantly more than they did before they were trapped, even when the mask was disguised with a hat or worn upside down. The neutral mask provoked little reaction. The effect has not only persisted, but also multiplied over the past two years. Wearing the dangerous mask on one recent walk through campus, Dr. Marzluff said, he was scolded by 47 of the 53 crows he encountered, many more than had experienced or witnessed the initial trapping. The researchers hypothesize that crows learn to recognize threatening humans from both parents and others in their flock.
I know I’m not alone. Here’s a preliminary list of why they deserve to be beloved:
13 Surprisingly Weird Reasons Why Crows And Ravens Are The Best Birds, No Question
- Crows can reason out cause and effect
- Crows understand water displacement
- Crows hold a grudge – and pass that grudge on to other crows
- Crows hold funerals for their dead
- Ravens are smart enough to be paranoid
- Crows can fashion tools
- Ravens use social ostracism to punish selfish peers
- Crows can exercise self-control
- Ravens can plan for the future and barter for items they need
- Ravens remember people who have been nice to them
- Ravens use gestures to communicate
- Crows like to play
Amazing, huh?
16 Unnerving Facts About Corvids Most People Don’t Know
Many species of birds push their young to leave the nest and they never see one another again. However, crows in America allow their offspring to stick around for years. Often the parents will have more young before their firstborns leave the nest. The offspring show their appreciation for the continued hospitality by raising the youngest birds in the nest. They do everything from feeding their mother and the babies to protecting the nest from predators. They will also offer protection for their family members who are out looking for food. These sort of “family values” and loyalty are seldom seen in birds.
Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates
Perhaps a few definitions are in order:
Are Crows the Same as Blackbirds?
Though a crow is a black bird, it’s not a blackbird. Nor is a blackbird a crow. Both are members of the order Passeriformes, but of different families. The crow is Corvus brachyrynchos, of the family Corvidae and the blackbird is of the family Icteridae. There are several species of blackbirds in North America.
How to Tell a Raven From a Crow
The Unexpected Genius of Corvids – it’s really something to crow about
Crows belong to the family Corvidae, which also includes ravens, magpies, jackdaws, and jays. All corvids display a range of intelligent behaviors that not only surpass that of other birds, but most mammals as well. To the uninitiated, the idea that a bird species could be up there with dolphins and chimps might be pretty surprising, but the evidence is insurmountable.
When we talk about animal intelligence, though, it’s important to account for our own human bias. Biology professor Megan Gall at Vassar College told me that from her perspective, ‘corvids aren’t necessarily ‘smarter’ than other birds … they have an intelligence that more closely mirrors that of human intelligence. In other words, they are good at tasks that we have an easy time identifying with.’
It’s an interesting thought. We use our own abilities as a yardstick for what ‘intelligence’ means, and that may not be completely fair to other species with highly specialized skills—like echolocation, for example.
But regardless of how we view animal intelligence, it’s clear that crows and other members of the Corvid family show some surprising capabilities that could help humans see them in a different light. In a feature on the ornithology lab website, McGowan is hopeful for a change in public perception. ‘People attribute some sort of malicious intent to what crows do when they’re just trying to raise their kids like everybody else,’ he says. ‘It’s not a bunch of juvenile delinquents coming through and trying to cause trouble.’”
Crows often get a bad rap . . . .
In many Western cultures, they’ve historically been associated with death, disease, and bad omens, reviled as crop-stealers by farmers, and condemned as nuisances by city dwellers. But the birds are fascinating creatures, adaptable and brainy to an extent that’s almost scary.
In the U.S., when people talk about crows and ravens, they’re usually referring to the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and the common raven (Corvus corax). Telling them apart can be tough, but it is possible for eagle-eyed birders. One big indicator is size: The common raven is much larger, about the size of a red-tailed hawk. It also has a more wedge-shaped tail. As Kevin J. McGowan of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology writes on his crow FAQ page, ravens soar longer than crows, and you can see through their wing feathers as they fly (among other differences). And the birds’ calls are substantially different. ‘American crows make the familiar caw-caw, but also have a large repertoire of rattles, clicks, and even clear bell-like notes,’ McGowan writes, whereas common ravens have ‘a deep, reverberating croaking or gronk-gronk. Only occasionally will a raven make a call similar to a crow’s caw, but even then it is so deep as to be fairly easily distinguished from a real crow.’
You can hear crow vocalizations here and raven vocalizations here.
Our Riverside corvid friends joyously shared all of their family drama with us, particularly their paternal pride!
Baby birds!
Badass birds? Ya think?
Crows are the smartest birds in the animal kingdom who give zero ducks. Want proof? Just take a look at any of the funny photos below:
73 Pics That Prove Corvids Are The Biggest Badasses In The Animal Kingdom
What’s a Crow’s Favorite Drink?
After YEARS of being a friend to the crows . . .
Breaking news: After YEARS of being a friend to the crows, I think I finally heard and understood they have a softer, sweeter call than that harsh cackle they utter to communicate with the flock. Just now, my sleek handsome friend flew to a tree near my backyard office and made the softest sound that had a little reverb like a car horn. Imagine an owl’s hoot put through auto tune with a little metallic trill at the end. So different, and so sweet. Happy to keep sharing Tripper’s dog cookies with my friends, the crows!! Or maybe the ravens.
“Never a good sign, he thought, when the crows showed up.”
― Justin Cronin, The Twelve
“Crows are harbingers of death and omens, good and bad, according to Big Jim according to Google. Midnight-winged tricksters associated with mystery, the occult, the unknown. The netherworld, wherever it is- Portland? We make people think of the deceased and super angsty poetry. Admittedly we don’t help the cause when we happily dine on fish guts in a landfill, but hey ho.”
― Kira Jane Buxton, Hollow Kingdom
“Crows squawked raucously in the trees. It sounded like they were tearing something apart, something they didn’t even want, just for the fun of destroying it.”
― Janet Fitch, White Oleander
“Of all the birds, they are the ones
who mind their being armless most:
witness how, when they walk, their heads jerk
back and forth like rifle bolts.
How they heave their shoulders into each stride
as if they hoped that by some chance
new bones there would come popping out
with a boxing glove on the end of each.
Little Elvises, the hairdo slicked
with too much grease, they convene on my lawn
to strategize for their class-action suit.
Flight they would trade in a New York minute
for a black muscle car and a fist on the shift
at any stale green light. But here in my yard
by the Jack-in-the-Box Dumpster
they can only fossick in the grass for remnants
of the world’s stale buns. And this
despite all the crow poems that have been written
because men like to see themselves as crows
(the head-jerk performed in the rearview mirror,
the dark brow commanding the rainy weather).
So I think I know how they must feel:
ripped off, shook down, taken to the cleaners.
What they’d like to do now is smash a phone against a wall.
But they can’t, so each one flies to a bare branch and screams.”
― Lucia Perillo
“And the crow once called the raven black.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
“Perfect devices: doctors, ghosts and crows. We can do things other characters can’t, like eat sorrow, un-birth secrets and have theatrical battles with language and God.”
― Max Porter, Grief is the Thing with Feathers
