Tag Archives: Corvids

Crow Brain

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Crow Brain: keeps shiny and useless things or things to put shiny things in.

That is totally ME.

Neighbors have begun to complain about a recent increased influx of crows in our area and I am one of the few who defend their right to live and eat and roost anyplace they choose. I tell them the same thing I say when they complain about coyotes..LEARN TO COEXIST!

“Having a crow brain” means to possess a high level of intelligence, particularly in terms of problem-solving, complex reasoning, and the ability to plan ahead, similar to the cognitive capabilities observed in crows, which are considered to be among the most intelligent birds; essentially, it signifies a sharp mind with advanced cognitive abilities, even if the phrase is often used figuratively to describe someone particularly clever.

We’ve long known that crows exhibit extraordinary intelligence. The more scientists unravel about their brain structure and behaviors, the more crows seem to resemble humans. 

The breakthrough study published in Science revealed that crows show signs of perceptual consciousness and an ability to have subjective experiences unique to their individual minds. This means the birds keep new information, or memories, in the front of their brains for extended periods, and use it in reasoning and navigating new situations they encounter.https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-more-we-learn-about-crow-brains-the-more-humanlike-their-intelligence

And specifically, Seattle has a thing about crows.

My son shared this phenomenon with me: a single roost at the University of Washington Bothell campus is home to as many as 16,000 birds. The sight of thousands of crows flying toward the campus at dusk has become one of Seattle’s signature attractions for those in the know.

A crow-filled sky might stir Hitchcockian visions for some, a “murder” of crows harassing people when they venture outside. This is the time of year when Seattleites take to social media with tales of protective crow parents dive-bombing them for unwittingly wandering too close to crow fledglings too young to fly.

The advice to those pleading for help is almost unanimous: Befriend the crows!!!

https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-crows-are-so-smart-they-re-challenging-what-we-know-about-evolution

Dreams of Tea With The Raven King

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Crows, ravens, I love them all. How spectacular would it be to have tea with the king of the ravens.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Dreams by Langston Hughes

Tea With The Raven King by Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman

What I’m Reading: Crow Planet

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Because my human family understands the special love I feel for my crow family (I refer to them as my cousins), I was gifted Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.

These are some of my garden “cousins” who greet me in the morning.


“Grandma, I know you love crows so much, but do you think they’re a little scary?”

Angel Boy asked that question because the crows in their neighborhood seem to know when they’re eating outside in the garden, and perch in the trees and on the garage to patiently wait for fallen morsels.

“I’m not afraid of them because I don’t believe they would ever cause me harm. The crows who visit me at home leave shiny little gifts. These guys simply want to share your dinner.”

I didn’t think it was the right time to tell him that if he tried – he could get them to eat out of his hand — but one day I might.

Crows are considered to be among the most intelligent animals in the world with brains that are similar in size to humans and make up almost two percent of their body mass. They’re known for their ability to solve complex problems, and some say they have the intelligence of a two to seven-year-old child.

Haupt is a Seattle-based author, naturalist, and speaker. “My work explores the beautiful, complicated connections between humans and the wild, natural world.” She has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont, and as a seabird researcher for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific. (Curated from https://www.lyandalynnhaupt.com/)

If you love crows like I do, you will LOVE Crow Planet.

What are YOU reading now?

As The Crow Flies

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Family can show up in different species, too.

My crow family (I refer to them as my cousins) are getting ready for spring by building nests in the backyard trees in preparation for the next gen. They return to the same location every year.

Did you know that crows are among the smartest animals in the world? Their intelligence is similar to that of chimpanzees. A crow’s brain accounts for almost two percent of its body mass, similar to that of humans.

I talk to them all the time and it seems as if they accept me and don’t even blink an eye when we’re together in the garden, and have brought me many shiny gifts throughout the years.

This crow cousin was gathering twigs and grasses for her nest. If you look closely, you’ll see she likes pine needles, too.

Nest construction begins in early March and will continue through about June. It takes one to two weeks to finish a nest after which the female will lay a clutch of two to six eggs.

Crow nests are made mostly of pencil-width twigs. A new nest is usually about 1.5 feet across and 8-10 inches deep.  After the bulk of construction is complete, they’ll line the cup of the nest with soft materials like grass, tree bark, moss, flowers, paper, or fur. 

Both partners participate in nest construction. Helpers might aid to some degree but most of the work is left to the parents. https://corvidresearch.blog/

I help too, and gave them the fringe I cut off a pillow that I planned to recover in a different fabric.

It’s raining today, unexpectedly, because all that was forecasted was some light drizzle, and now everything is wet. I hope my crow cousin’s nest is somewhere warm and dry. I’m going to look for more nesting material they might like to use because it makes me happy to think I’m kinda sorta like THEIR family, too.

(All photo credit to Enchanted Seashells.)

Gifts From Above

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My crow cousins have been leaving gifts for me all around the garden and deck.

Shiny and sparkly!

So far I’ve discovered these four baubles. I always look up to see if I can catch the gift giver; so far I haven’t, but I say thank you out loud as I pocket my treasures.

Crows are known to give small gifts to people who pay attention to them or feed them. The phenomenon is actually called “gifting”. I don’t feed my local crow family as there is plenty to eat without my intervention, but I do talk to them and generally love their presence, so maybe they feel that emotion and return the affection. I’ve read that crows (and other corvids) remember the faces of those who are mean to them and those who are especially kind.

Some of my neighbors don’t appreciate our community of crows as much as I do, and I’m positive they aren’t receiving the same kinds of gifts like I am.

I’m full of gratitude to my bird family Thank you, cousins!

Check out another crow post:
https://enchantedseashells.com/2023/01/25/crows-crows-and-more-crows/

Crows, Crows, and MORE Crows!

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Kids really do listen to everything we say, that’s absolutely true.

One time I looked up as a crow flew by and said, “Hello, cousin!”

Angel Girl asked me why I said that, and I told her that crows are very smart and that I feel they’re like family to me.

The next time we saw crows fly by, she pointed and said, “There goes one of your cousins, Grandma!”

Mom asked her why she said that, and Angel Girl told her all the crows in the whole world are Grandma’s cousins, which is a great thing to her because she loves her own cousins.

The best part of the story is that it makes perfect sense to her that animals are family. I like that a lot.

Besides a murder of crows, there are other collective nouns for crows: a horde, a hover, a mob, a parcel, a parliament, and a storytelling.

As for a storytelling of crows? This is a bit of an unknown but crows do tend to gather in large flocks and are known for their loud ‘caw’.  Perhaps someone observed this and decided that they weren’t so much plotting a murder but were telling stories to each other, https://www.birdspot.co.uk/

This photo from late yesterday afternoon must tell quite the story; I’ve never seen so many crows on the school field.

Seeing crows at sundown is a common occurrence around here, but not on this grand scale. Everyone driving by slowed down to gawk and neighbors came out to record it like I did.

On the roof, on the fence, on the fields — all my cousins!

View post on imgur.com

Update: I sent the photo to my original Angel Boy and received a video text from his almost seven-year-old clone, AB 2.0 — “Hey Grandma, that’s a lot of cousins!”

My happiness grew exponentially.

Hungry?

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Just a hungry scrub jay hanging out on the deck. They LOVE raw peanuts. I still find a few empty shells hidden in the garden nine years later..

One of my favorite photos from September 2011.

First there was one, then another, and for a while, there were about four jays who hung out and let me hand feed them.

Did you know that scrub jays are very intelligent?

From Wiki: Recent research has suggested that western scrub jays, along with several other corvids, are among the most intelligent of animals. The brain-to-body mass ratio of adult scrub jays rivals that of chimpanzees and cetaceans, and is dwarfed only by that of humans. Scrub jays are also the only non-primate or non-dolphin shown to plan ahead for the future (known as metacognition), which was previously thought of as a uniquely human trait Other studies have shown that they can remember locations of over 200 food caches, as well as the food item in each cache and its rate of decay. To protect their caches from pilfering conspecifics, scrub jays will choose locations out of sight of their competitors, or re-cache caches once they are alone, suggesting that they can take into account the perspective of others. According to new research from the University of California @ Davis, scrub jays also summon others to screech over the body of a dead jay. The birds’ cacophonous “funerals” can last for up to half an hour.

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