Crow Thread

reply to post by Bybyots

Excellent thread OP.

I always knew crows were resourceful, I've seen them pry open garbage bins to get to the goodies inside, but I didn't realize their intellect spans as much as it does.

reply to post by Bybyots



Cool story, only the end is ever true...

reply to post by Asktheanimals

Thanks for sharing. I did not know that about their color.

Oops, Raven is the smartest. That's also the sheep killing pest not a crow. Nevermind.

reply to post by Bybyots


Animals have all day to think about food. They're not so smart. It's survival. Also, in the first example, how do you know the crow was female?

stormson
i heard this story once, dont know if its true, but its sounds like it could happen.

a guy, researcher really, had some crows. he taught them that coins equal food. if they dropped a coin in a slot, food came out. really basic. then he taught them that different coins equal different amounts of food.

he then set up the food dispenser outside and let the crows go. he started to make hundreds an month from them. it appears that the ones he let go taught wild crows about the food dispenser and they started to collect coins as well.

again, dont know if this is true, but it sounds like something they would do.

The whole problem with this idea is that crows are smart enough they would probably just end up hacking the dispenser, probably by brute forcing its wi-fi with java script and a Raspberry Pi.

reply to post by Bybyots


I saw this picture and thought of your thread Bybyots;



It also reminded me of the YT video someone added earlier in the thread about the Crow adopting the Kitten.

Woody )O(

i´m fascinated about crows and specially ravens - corvus corax

many years ago i was traveling around and mostly sleeping outside. for a while i had a nice spot to sleep in some bushes in the dunes and soon discovered that Ravens where flying over my head in the morning. i couldnt see them but i could hear them. i tried to follow them to see what they where doing but as soon i would leave my cover in the bushes i would just see them fly away in the distance.one day i decided a stealthier approach and after i heard them i crawled up the dune and i was lucky. three huge ravens were sitting on top of an high dune maybe 50 meters from me. they where hopping around and making noises also some wing-flapping. i thought "wow they are having a meeting" it was really a special moment but when i finished having my thought they took off each to his own direction.i never heard or saw them again after that. i think they knew i was sneaking up to them and they did not like it.
i think they change information somehow- maybe like bees.... from what i read its extremely difficult to observe Ravens in the wild and get an idea about their behavior patterns because apparently they just change them when they note that they are observed- and they always seem to note that.its impossible to hide from them.

reply to post by woodwytch


Ah woodwytch,

That's got me laughing pretty hard. That's pretty much the short of it, right? The Crow just has way more endurance for shennanigans than cats. The cat looks like it's taking its ball and going home.

Thanks for sharing that.

reply to post by Bybyots


Glad you liked it ... and love your avatar pic.

Woody )O(

reply to post by woodwytch


Woody that say's it all right there. Hilarious.

Great thread. Bybyots

I'm reminded of a children's book called Crow Boy by Taro Yashima, it's a great little story, which I'll share here-

Here is a video version of it, in which you can see the lovely artwork from the book.



And here is the text for those with slow internet or those who prefer to read

Crow Boy by Taro Yashima (1955)

On the first day of our village school in Japan, there was a boy missing. He was found hidden away in the dark space underneath the schoolhouse floor. None of us knew him. He was nicknamed Chibi because he was very small. Chibi means “tiny boy.”

This strange boy was afraid of our teacher and could not learn a thing. He was afraid of the children and could not make friends with them.

He was left alone in the study time.

He was left alone in the play time.

He was always at the end of the line, always at the foot of the class, a forlorn little tagalong.

Soon Chibi began to make his eyes cross-eyed, so that was able not to see what he did not want to see.

And Chibi found many ways, one after another, to kill time and amuse himself.

Just the ceiling was interesting enough for him to watch for hours,

The wooden top of his desk was another thing interesting to watch.

A patch of cloth on a boy’s shoulder was something to study.

Of course the window showed him many things all year round.

Even when it was raining the window had surprising things to show him.

On the playground, if he closed his eyes and listened, Chibi could hear many sounds, far and near.

And Chibi could hold and watch insects and grubs that most of us wouldn’t touch or even look at—

So that not only the children in our class but the older ones and even the younger ones called him stupid and slow.

But, slowpoke or not, day after day Chibi came trudging to school. He always carried the same lunch, a rice ball wrapped in a radish leaf.

Even when it rained or stormed he still came trudging along, wrapped in a raincoat made from dried zebra grass.

And so, day by day, five years went by, and we were in the sixth grade, the last class in school.

Our new teacher was Mr. Isobe. He was a friendly man with a kind smile.

Mr. Isobe often took his class to the hilltop behind the school.

He was pleased to learn that Chibi knew all the places where the wild grapes and wild potatoes grew.

He was amazed to find out how much Chibi knew about all the flowers in our class garden.

He like Chibi’s black-and-white drawings and tacked them up on the wall to be admired.

He liked Chibi’s own handwriting, which no one but Chibi could read, and he tacked that up on the wall.

And he often spent time talking with Chibi when no one was around.

But, when Chibi appeared on the stage at the talent show of that year, no one could believe his eyes. “Who is that?” “What can that stupid do up there?”

Until Mr. Isobe announce that Chibi was going to imitate the voices of crows. “Voices?” “Voices of crows?” “Voices of crows!”

“VOICES OF CROWS.”

First he imitated the voices of newly hatched crows.

And he made the mother crow’s voice.

Then he imitated the father crow’s voice.

He showed how crows cry early in the morning.

He showed how crows cry when the village people have some unhappy accident.

He showed how crows call when they are happy and gay.

Everybody’s mind was taken to the far mountainside from which Chibi probably came to school.

At the end, to imitate a crow on an old tree, Chibi made very special sounds deep down in his throat. “KAUUWWATT! KAUUWWATT!”

Now everybody could imagine exactly the far and lonely place where Chibi lived with his family.

Then Mr. Isobe explained how Chibi had learned those calls – leaving his home for school at dawn, and arriving home at sunset, every day for six long years.

Every one of us cried, thinking how much we had been wrong to Chibi all those years.

Even grownups wiped their eyes, saying, “Yes, yes, he is wonderful.”

Soon after that came graduation day.

Chibi was the only one in our class honored for perfect attendance through all the six years.

After school was over, the big boys would often have work to do in the village for their families.

Sometimes Chibi came to the village to sell the charcoal he and his family made.

But nobody called him Chibi any more. We all called him Crow Boy. “Hi, Crow Boy!”

Crow boy would nod and smile as if he liked the name.

And when his work was done he would buy a few things for his family.

Then he would set off for his home on the far side of the mountain, stretching his growing shoulders proudly like a grown-up man. And from around the turn of the mountain road would come a crow call—the happy one.

Just had to say, "Thanks for the thread." I've had an attachment/fondness for crows for a long time. They are easier to see as having a personality, I guess, because of their vocal and in-your-face manner. Watching them do what they do as a kid made me respect their intelligence.

One in particular was amazing in his efforts to get at the bird feeder my father had attempted to make "crow proof." One episode had the cagey crow grasp the claws of another crow and hover while his friend ate the fruity bits from the feeder upside down, passing some to the hoverer at intervals (my father had tiny perches and a hood attached to keep the larger marauding birds off the feeder... in vain, of course).

The double, inverted, black -bird "monster" they briefly created has stayed with me.

Anyway, they're ... special creatures. The creepy, Trickster Poe/Goth/Shamanic aspect is just a big plus.

Amazing animals! Driving through the country in Australia, you will see quite a lot if these feeding on roadkill. When they see a car approach, they hop to just over the white line on the side of the road and then return to feeding once the car has passed. They have learned that the cars do not cross that line, so they feel safe there. You don't see many, if any, dead crows.

Are those two crows racists LOOOOL

reply to post by Bandolero


Bahahaahah!!

At first it's like those crows are saying "C'mon whitey, I dare ya!" And then the black cat comes in and jumps it and the crows are ring side like "Kick whitey's ass, C'mon!" They even still go after the white cat while it's fighting and leave the black one alone.

THIS is what i'm talking about with crows. They have never done that to my cat (about 6 will surround it and won't shut up), but I have seen them do the same thing to a 6 foot black snake.

reply to post by Bybyots


I wonder if the birds in this news story were a couple of pissed off crows. They might have felt that the drone was invading their property or hunting grounds.

Birds Down a Drone Copter


Birds attack QuadraCopter Video

reply to post by Bandolero


Wonderful!

What a pair of fight promoters!

That sort of behaviour I've seen our local magpies do to foxes, and recently a squirrel, going for the tail as if wanting to aggravate the **** out of the poor creature.

Another example of intelligence in animals.

www.orionmagazine.org...

I read a quote by a marine biologist who said, If the octopus (which has a 3 year lifespan) lived as long as humans it would be the dominate species on the planet.

There was a case last year where primates destroyed traps set by poachers.


Makes me wonder how we would communicate with life on other planets when we can't communicate with other life on our own planet.

reply to post by Hayzito


Bwahahaha!

That was super funny and it ends with a satisfying crunch. Thanks for posting that. here it is so folks can have a gander.

For those that have not visited Hayzito's link, what appear to be two corvids recon and then disable this RC quadracopter.