Any Crow lovers Out There?

[lovezebs]

For many years, I've been fascinated by Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and their brethern.

I've always known that they were intelligent....all you have to do is look into their eyes to see it. Found this little article that I enjoyed reading, maybe you will too.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-researc ... elligence/

[w.l.]

I've always liked corvids.
Several species are sold here on the bird markets, including some beautiful magpie species and often baby crows. I'd love to buy and hand raise one of the latter, but the amount of food I suppose it meeds puts me off.
Sadly, adult crows are sold to be killed in 'black magic' rituals, just as black chickens.
As for their inteligence, here is just one if many videos to show it:
https://youtu.be/cbSu2PXOTOc
They also learn to talk as well as parrots and mynahs, though online videos of this are disappointing, nothing like a raven I saw as a teenager in Budapest zoo that spoke 3 word phrases very clearly.

[lovezebs]

w.l.

Wow!
That's absolutely amazing.
I didn't catch the first few words of the video (sound turned down), but was this particular bird trained to do this, or did he just figure it out the first time around?

I noticed that you mentioned some beautiful Magpies, and started looking at different types of Magpies....

I never realized there as many different types, with some being absolutely magnificant

Taiwan Blue
Red Billed Blue
Azure Winged
Black and White
White Throated
Formosan Blue
Sri Lanka Blue
Black Billed
Black Throated
Javan Green
Yellow Billed
Yellow Billed Blue
Australian

And even the odd albino Magpie.

What types are sold where you are?

By the way, how much food would a Crow eat do you think?

Oh and I came across this picture, without an explanation or a name. Any idea what this bird might be?

[Dave]

Read 'Ravens in Winter' , and 'Mind of the Raven' by Bernd Heinrich. There are one or two follow-up books, too.

He did field research on Ravens, and the conclusions are amazing.

[Icearstorm]

lovezebs
It does look like a corvid, but the lack of nasal bristles that cover the nares/nostrils makes me think it is just some kind of blackbird or mynah or something.
I do love corvids; I think I may like them as much as the birds of prey, which is really saying something. For those interested in animal psychology, Gifts of the Crow and Animals in Translation are good reads. The latter is not about crows, but really makes you think about how animals experience the world.

[lovezebs]

Dave Icearstorm

Thanks guys, will have to look up these books (they sound interesting).

[wildbird]

My mom used to have a crow that talked. He would yell for HELP when a cat came around. When he said hello, he would bow down with his wings extended a little and say h-e-l-l-o. Mr. Crow would eat roast beef, vegtables and table food. Became very attached to people who took care of him.

[lovezebs]

wildbird

That's hilarious!

I suppose that he would become attached to his people, and bond with whomever was his main care taker.

Would you happen to recall how long your Mom's bird lived?

[GouldieFledge]

Yes, yes, YES! Their intelligence and behavior is amazing. I loved them before I even had finches. If I had the means and resources....

A friend of mine during college had a crow in their family. Said it was super smart and knew words/phases. I think he told me they fed him raw meat.

Have you read the articles about 1. the young girl who fed nearby crows in her yard every day, and in return, they'd return a gift/token of appreciation daily (blue objects, buttons, coins, shiny things); and 2. the ones in (Japan?) that would coordinate dropping nuts into the street with the timing of stoplights, so that the cars would run them over, effectively cracking the nuts open for the crows?

[Babs _Owner]

lovezebs

A place I worked evenings at years ago had a parking lot where in the trees surrounding it were 100s of crows that roosted each sunset.

I would sit in the car and eat dinner there and just watch them, mesmerized at how within the huge horde of them you could see individual groups (I think they call them roosts) would squabble on the ground amongst themselves before heading to the branches to sleep.

When I read that these groups are usually a large family, and that the juveniles grow up to stay with that family, I found it even more fascinating. Some roosts consisted of more than 50 birds.

If two crows squabbled, both the families would get into for a few seconds to end the fight between the two.....

Watching two large families face-off and posture to each other like small feathered armies, but never getting into a big fight, while both families barked orders at the two squabbling to "knock it off" so to speak.

Hard to explain , but just amazing to watch the tension, and at the same time the cooperation of so many crows all at the same time.

[GouldieFledge]

Oh! The article Elana posted talks about the girl who receives gifts, whoops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0 there's the traffic one

[lovezebs]

GouldieFledge

That's absolutely fascinating.

It would be easy to say, aww just a coincidence, but when they do it over and over, you start to realize that this is not a coincidence at all, they really are doing it on purpose.

[lovezebs]

Babs

Family dynamics, lol.

[Icearstorm]

Here's a video of a crow demonstrating its knowledge of water displacement that I posted on another thread:
Casual understanding of water displacement by a crow

[GouldieFledge]

!!!!!!!!!!!! w.l. that video just made my life, AMAZING!

I want a trained crow to tag along on my shoulder with me everywhere, like a pirate and his parrot