Probable Caws
Written by Anna James, Visitor Services Coordinator
The Real Bird Brains
Have you ever seen a scary movie where there’s a shot of a spooky house, some creepy woods, or an ominously empty field, with crows flying over and cawing? The movie industry has, unfortunately, contributed to the negative stereotypes crows have been given. Crows are often associated with negative ideas like death, bad luck, and general spookiness, but they don’t deserve this reputation. They are incredibly smart, playful, altruistic, and have close-knit families just like us.
Our Relationship with Crows
Humans have a long history of being creeped out by crows. One historical reason for the fear (and even hatred) is that crows would show up after battles and scavenge on fallen warriors. Crows simply saw it as food, but people saw this behavior as a desecration. Another reason that some cultures may have viewed crows badly was that some had negative views of the color black, which made an all-black or mostly-black bird that scavenges on dead bodies look pretty bad to those cultures. Because of this, some cultures saw crows as evil, or harbingers of death.
Photo by Gary Seloff
People also don’t like how noisy they are and there is a belief that they kill large numbers of songbirds. While crows do prey on other birds, they don’t reduce songbird populations significantly.
Another mark against the crow is that they often eat crops, which could potentially doom farmers to starve. Of course, the people in the past didn’t realize that crows simply saw a field of crops as free food and had no concept of human ownership, but that didn’t stop people from developing a deep hatred of the birds. The eating of crops caused farmers to wage war on crows. They were shot in large numbers, and in 1940, the town of Rockford, Illinois dynamited crow roosts to try to rid their town of crows. In one instance, the Illinois Department of Conservation killed 328,000 crows with a single blast. Dynamite was used in other places as well. During the day while crows were out foraging, the farmers would set the dynamite in the bases of the trees that crows were roosting in. Then, when the crows came back at night, they would detonate it, killing the crows in large numbers.
Crows are now protected under the Migratory Bird Act and people employ more humane ways of protecting their crops like using decoy seeds or food, and noise and light deterrents. Surprisingly, crows may actually be beneficial to agriculture in some instances. In the winter, they remove European Corn Borer larvae that are overwintering in corn fields. When crows eat the larvae, they prevent the corn from being attacked by the European Corn Borers in the next growing season.
Other cultures, such as many Native American groups, have recognized the deep intelligence and cleverness of crows and ravens. Some believed that seeing a crow was good luck. Some trickster gods were depicted as crows or ravens.
Crow Intelligence
Crows are incredibly intelligent. In fact, they are so intelligent that researchers call them “feathered apes.”
They are excellent problem solvers. There is an Aesop fable where a thirsty crow drops stones into a pitcher of water until the water level rises enough that it can get a drink. This fable may be rooted in reality. There have been experiments where crows were found to understand water displacement and they dropped objects in tubes of water to reach a floating piece of food. The reasoning skills involved here are similar to those of 5-7 year old children.
Carrion crows in Japan use cars and traffic lights to crack nuts. They wait for a light to turn red, place their walnuts on the road, and then wait again. When the light turns green, the cars run over the walnuts, breaking the shells. The crows wait until the light turns red again, then they go collect their treats. This can be risky, but the crows have mostly figured it out. American crows have also been seen doing this in California.
Tool use is another marker of their intelligence. New Caledonian crows are the only non-primates that make compound tools (tools that are put together from individual parts). In an experiment, they were able to connect short, hollow sticks together to make longer ones to reach some food. They did this without any training or demonstration. In other experiments, they’ve created hooks to retrieve food by bending a piece of wire.
They also make tools in the wild and they take a lot of care of their tools and will lodge them in holes to keep them safe when they’re not using them. American crows have also been observed using pieces of wood as tools.
Crows have “theory of mind,” meaning that they realize that others have thoughts, abilities, and motives. This type of intelligence is very sophisticated and important for social animals. For example, if they hide a piece of food and know that another animal saw them, then they know that the food isn’t safe. If they know they’re being watched, they’ll pretend to hide the food and then go hide it somewhere else. They do this so that they won’t be followed. Crows aren’t able to fool each other with this trick, and they’ll follow each other to the real hiding spots.
Crows Work Together
Crows are social animals. They usually mate for life and they spend most of the year in pairs or small family groups. The young often stick around for a few years after they become adults and help raise their siblings. They defend the nest, bring food to their family members, and stand watch while other family members forage. One researcher observed that over 6 years, 80% of the 200 nests being studied had 3 or more adult crows tending the nest. In winter, they roost together in large communal groups.
Crows watch out for each other. They alert others about threats and they work together to chase away predators by mobbing them. Crows also team up to steal food from other animals. A few of them will distract the animal away from its food while the others sneak in and take the food.
Crows Are Playful
There are many examples of crows doing things just for fun, like sledding down snowy roofs, rolling down snowy car windshields, swinging on tree branches, and teasing cats and dogs. This may be an example of indirect learning because they are exploring their world and may learn enough to be able to use what they discover in the future. They’re learning about the physical properties of objects and about the responses of other animals. Or maybe they’re just having fun like we do!
Crows are amazing animals that don’t deserve their negative reputation. You can often see crows at ABNC! There’s a family that likes to hang out in the picnic area across from the bison platform, around the farm site, and near the front entrance. You might see them on your next visit!