This Little Girl Began Feeding The Crows, Now They Bring Her Gifts

In 1999 I was working during a 3 or 4 foot snowfall we had just experienced and I came upon a tree which was covered with these birds. There had to be a thousand, making a pretty loud racket. At the bottom of it was a solitary crow, impaled within a barren shrub, who was apparently struggling. It was in someone's backyard behind where I was employed, and since the snow was higher than the fence it was easy to walk in and try to help the bird. I decided to make a warming hut from a box, and maybe it would survive. I didn't consider that the birds would mind. At any rate they all became silent at the same time.

I brought the box with me during deliveries because the proprietors were superstitious and pretty easily led into projecting negative and crazy ideas about things like having a bird in their place. At any rate it didn't take long for the bird to die. I saw the eyes roll back in it's head and that was that.

Perhaps it was wrong to intercede but the murder was apparently appeased by the act of relieving the elder crow from being upside down in a shrub on a zeroish day after two days of blizzard conditions, because all at once they were silent. Eventually they dispersed. Not sure if crows normally feel as this display would indicate about all their brothers, or if this one were special somehow.

# 719

a reply to: iTruthSeeker



Lets hope it doesn't get to this.

Crows and squirrels - two of the most common urban critters - are also two of the smartest.

Try keeping a squirrel out of your bird feeder! You're not baffling them, you're just providing environmental enrichment. They likely enjoy it.

It's just easier to set up a squirrel feeder.

for some reason i read cows instead of crows and i got really worried for moment. cows bringing presents to little girl ? oh no! i scrolled down and just saw crows and
for a momet i was like - if cows are capable of giving presents to a little girl i have to stop eating steaks...
now it´s clear i need more coffee. not eating crows anyway ...
agh

raven has stolen a button. if she had sewn her up I would give her a cigarette youtu.be... and author of the star and the flag

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Really cool to see this. It is always nice to see humans communicating with our very close ancestors. We seem to put ourselves above these animals in general, yet we are no more advanced then they are. If alien life is what most of us seek, to communicate. We are communicating already in this manner, with very life on the earth we already live side by side.

Beautiful story and so nice to know there are birds out there being made to feel a part of our world.

Star and Flag.

originally posted by: darkbake
I got on the crows' bad side at my college... a friend and I would get drunk and take our BB Gun out crow hunting because they would nest next to our dorm room windows. They definitely recognized us! They eventually moved two blocks down the street.

Had a neighbor who hated crows and would shoot at them with a pellet gun. Now they congregate on his roof and pick at the shingles not to mention pooping all over his car. He's had to replace his roof twice in the last 10 years.

I say "hi" to them and occasionally my daughter will throw them some bread. I have not had a single one poop on my car parked outside and seldom do they get on my roof.

I treat them with mad respect.

originally posted by: stonerwilliam
a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Another little thing i learned years ago was if you cut the tongue of a crow/ rook/ jackdow they can talk , i never heard it with my own ears but the old man telling it to me had seen this

I've heard varying accounts. One thing Ive heard is that cutting the tongue is not necessary. I'm not sure what is true, but I would look into it some more before spreading what that old man told you, if I were you. Just some friendly advice is all.

originally posted by: stonerwilliam
a reply to: swanne

The strangest thing i saw crows do with my eyes was hold a court ?? , In the very early AM summer time i came across thousands of them all round this large council building all SILENT , it was like walking onto Hitchcocks film the Birds set and freaked me out .

When i asked about this later at home i was told one of them had done wrong and was getting punished , and we call them dumb animals

Maybe it got caught talking to a human, and telling it secrets...

originally posted by: 3n19m470

originally posted by: stonerwilliam
a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Another little thing i learned years ago was if you cut the tongue of a crow/ rook/ jackdow they can talk , i never heard it with my own ears but the old man telling it to me had seen this

I've heard varying accounts. One thing Ive heard is that cutting the tongue is not necessary. I'm not sure what is true, but I would look into it some more before spreading what that old man told you, if I were you. Just some friendly advice is all.

From what i remember about the conversation 40 years ago the tongue had to be split in the middle half way up to allow the bird to talk ,but those men had seen it first hand and were shocked by it

a reply to: stonerwilliam

Split Tongue Myth

One myth I’d like to dispel is that you have to split a pet crow’s tongue to make it talk. First off, birds do not use their tongue the same way we do to make sound, in fact birds don’t even use their larynx to make vocalizations like we do. Birds utilize their syrynx, which is found in the chest just before the bronchi branch off to each lung. Each bronchi can produce a sound using air vibrating through the external labia and the internal tympaniform membranes. (This means that birds can produce two different sounds at once! It’s way cool!) Movement of the avian tongue may change the shape of the mouth as sound is coming out, but not in the same ways as we use our very flexible tongue. So the point is that the tongue (which is fairly rigid in corvids) is not used in creating vocalizations the same way humans do, therefore altering the tongue has nothing to do with the sounds a bird makes or the ability of a crow/raven to mimic human speech. (If you would like to read more about how birds produce sound please click here.)

corvidblog.tumblr.com...

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

At our house before we had magpies. They would take to making a racket in the morning at sunrise. In the summer this gets maddening because the sun rises at 5:30. One morning, my husband was fed up and said he was going to shoot them. I told him to try warning them first. So, he went out there and popped some shots off. We did this two or three times and they learned to shut up in the morning by God.

We had a nestling that was down one year and we fed her. My daughter named her Karaoke. She would hop on my back while I was weeding (only then), come to the screen door and chatter when she wanted fed, and just hang out.

We would get nestlings down a lot. They learned that if they would perch on the roof near the doors and make a god awful racket I would come out to see what was wrong, and then they would fly over to where the baby was so I would see it. They learned I would pick them up and pop them in a tree somewhere. The thing was, this behavior spread; like they learn from each other. It became part of the magpie culture on the property.

I heard crows hold grudges too, for years. I cant remember if i read it or heard it it firsthand but apparently someone in college used to throw rocks at crows until they started swarming him and then he came back for a reunion and they swarmed him again and only him..

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

i great documentary on PBS called murder of crows. they did extensive research on there intelligence and there ability to identify faces especially people who were cruel to them.
i feed my crows but never got any gifts. i do find they are the protectors of all the little birds. i have witnessed a hawk grab a little bird and the crows attacked it until it released the little bird. whenever they see the hawks in the area of my bird feeder they chase it mercilessly until it leaves and i always know when a hawk is around because they all start squawking.

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

This is why we shouldn't be feeding the wild life, they leave garbage in your yard. Hooligans.

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: StallionDuck
Now if you can train them to bring you precious metals and minerals! THAT would be awesome.

The feeder that trains birds to PAY for their food: Crow Box teaches corvids to collect coins in return for peanuts

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... z4bWzkM08Q
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!!!DUDE!!!

All I need is a starter gold nugget!!

originally posted by: HannahForever
Gifted child I must say….crows are smartest of species

Hard choice between Crows, Octopus and Ratcoons

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

this reminds me of the stories you'd hear about miners in america in the old west and pack rats !

miners would leave them gifts and the rats would bring them something in exchange , and often it was a lump of gold !