Why Crows Are as Smart as 7 Year Old Humans

Credits:
Narrator/Writer: Stephanie Sammann
Writer: Ashleen Knutsen

Imagery courtesy of Getty Images

References:

[frankmazzur]

The wolf/raven relationship goes even deeper than described here. Ravens have been witnessed finding suitable prey and signaling to wolf packs by cawing loudly. In other words, the ravens act as spotters for the wolves who then allow the ravens to scavenge part of the resulting kill.

[donyab.e]

We once found a dying crow fledgling and brought it in and started giving it medicine. It was something we had done for many other animals including birds before. This little fellow was the first one who didn't resist drinking the medicine and actually cooperated with us in every step of the treatment. To our surprise, it worked and the little fellow got better. Only within a few days we realized that it was capable of a human-like relationship. Sitting with us watching TV for hours while demanding strokes and kisses on his head, getting angry when we turned our back to him (or her), throwing tantrums by picking up stuff and throwing them all around when left unattended and letting us know where he was hiding when he realized we were looking for him (even when we weren't calling him). He eventually got so good at ransoming us by throwing tantrums that we left him in the balcony to stop him from getting bored and one day (nearly 40 days after bringing him in) we only came out to see him gone and tens of crows surrounding our house! It was as if they were asking what was our baby doing in your house? We never saw him again and I still regret leaving him in the balcony although maybe that was the best for him. I've had many many pets and I loved them all. But, this crow was the only one who seemed like a human trapped in the body of a bird. I miss him so much.

[ValkyrieofNOLA]

I heard a story about a woman and her young daughter who had a flock of crows in the trees outside their house. Her toddler had dropped her chicken nuggets and the crows came and took them to eat. The little girl loved them and loved to feed them and they set up a feeder and bird bath for them. The mother was a photographer, and she was working a few miles away from home. She was photographing something outside and she had taken the lens cover off and it fell to the ground. Since she was busy getting her pictures she decided to pick it up later after she was done. She forgot about the lens cover completely. When she arrived at her house, the lens cover was sitting on her front porch. The crows had followed her to her work site and had picked up the lens cover when she forgot to. They frequently leave little gifts for them in the bird bath. Little trinkets and shiny pieces of refuse.
That story always stuck with me for some reason.

[Griimnak]

The ability to hold a grudge and shit on the same person's car for years is actually hilarious

[ToddHowardWithAGun]

In one set of experiments I believe conducted in Sweden, one of the test subject crows actually hacked the puzzle box. There was some black box mechanism where inserting trash into one end would cause the machine to dispense food out the other. Well this clever guy managed to jam a stick inside the feeding mechanism, breaking the machine and releasing all the food. They had to remove him from the experiment.

[ThunderPants]

I actually had a New Caledonian crow do my taxes for me this year. His beak was a little hard on the keyboard of my computer, but his rates were very reasonable.

[freyherrvonhessen]

A young crow once started interacting with us in our garden. It started by fetching things and playing tug of war with sticks. Once we got out a pack of nuts, it did everything to get its beak into it. We started hiding the nuts but that thing would always find the hiding spots. Once I was watching over the nuts and the crow started stealing gloves out of my Rucksack and would drop them at the other end of the Garden. As soon as I retrieved the glove, the crow had free access to the nuts. I just didn't anticipate getting fooled by a crow...

[majinvegeta]

"If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't" I've always found it amazing that when you look at galaxies strung across the universe in long filaments they resemble a brains intricacies

[williamwhitten]

Amazing presentation. I had a crow who was knocked out of her nest by larger siblings. She had just begun to grow feathers when I found her in my driveway. This was in Van Nuys, California in the early 1990s. I fed her baby bird food, a dry cereal product you mix with hot water to prepare. I used an eyedropper to squirt it into her mouth. She grew up to be a healthy female crow.
She would stay with me perched on my shoulder just like parrots do. She was my constant companion for many years. She even learned to say "hello" when I would see her after being out.
I named her Jamima. We had many adventures together. We ended up moving to San Diego, to El Cajon, a rather wild desert sort of environ with sage and brush.
In the winter Jamima would stay in the garage, sitting up in the rafters. In summer she stayed on an outside tall table with a perch across the top. I had a large cardboard shipping box that I would put over her at night to keep predators away.
It was at this location that Jamima finally left me. I came home from a movie late one evening around dusk. She wasn't sitting atop the garage eve where she would usually wait for me to get home. I was baffled, I called her name out for hours that night.
I was devastated at her loss.
The next morning just after dawn I heard Jamima cawing out in the front of the house. I ran outside and there she was bobbing her head up and down 0n top of a street lamp, obviously excited about something.
I put out my arm and called to her to come on down. She just kept chattering and dancing around. After about 5 minutes of this a big black male crow swooped in low over Jamima circled and Jamima lifted up and flew off over the chaparral across the street. My best friend had eloped!
About 3 months later I heard Jamima cawing excitedly out front one morning. I ran out and there she was sitting on a low branch of a tree across the street. Again she was literally doing the bop and chattering excitedly. I stood there amazed, calling out "what's up Jamima? You came home!" Finally she lifted up off the branch and flew up about 12 feet above the road. At that point three young crows flew up to meet her from the chaparral. She had brought her babies to show me! I was then so happy for her. I understood my Jamima as she understood me.
About four months later my wife brought home a small parrot, a Green-cheeked Conure. I named her Deeter.
Deeter passed away, but I still have an African Gray named Peeper, that has lived with me for 29 years now.

[ObservableObserver]

I've once seen a crow landing on a sidewalk. The crow then checked the street for incoming cars by looking left and right. The street was clear, so the crow walked on foot to the opposite sidewalk. I remember how impressed I was by that intelligent behavior and at the same time I was asking myself why the crow did not just fly over the street.

[drkv]

Crows also pass the test for self aware consciousness. They are aware of their awareness and know what they are.

[EarlofSedgewick]

In Australia I worked on a grain storage site during the outloading season, and a group of magpies started to try to train me 😄. The grain was stored in huge piles on top of plastic groundsheets. As the grain emptied out, I would remove the groundsheet in sections using a telehandler. The best way to do this was to lift a chunk of the sheet as high as possible by extending the hydraulic arm completely. As full extension was reached, the hydraulics would let a sort of whistle/squeak, and I would then swing the vehicle to the side and begin folding the sheet into a manageable section.

Of course, this is when the mice would be increasingly uncovered, and then would sprint back to the next section of groundsheet, and the magpies would swoop in from their perches.

After about two months of doing repeated groundsheet trims every week or so, I noticed that the magpies were making strange sounds as I walked to the telehandler in the morning. They were mimicking the sound of the hydraulic arm as it came to full extension. It was a social communication in which they were inquiring and perhaps encouraging me to go out a cut a groundsheet. Or perhaps they were just saying hello in the language they thought I used 😂

Notably there also a kite (hawk) that hung around the place and hunted for mice. It too would watch for my telehandler to lift up a groundsheet and would sit on the grain pile's peak, waiting for the "buffet" to start. However, he never attempted any communication and only arrived when the process began, whereas the magpies began "talking" to me first thing in the morning when work started, long before I would cut any sheets.

[TheVampireFreddo]

I’ve been feeding the same group of ten or so crows for the last few years. We are daily walking companions, and will comfortably hang out together. Just the other day a crow was perched outside of my bedroom window and was frantically cawing at my wife and I. It would caw twice, and then rapidly stare downward. It would then look back at us, caw twice again and then stare down below. (We are on the second floor) it was trying to get our attention! My wife walked to the window and the crow looked at her, and looked down again (like a hunting dog that points, if that makes sense) and there was this giant fat raccoon meandering about. Once we saw it, the crow almost chirped, and the flew off. We were warned of the danger! So cool!

[BodyMusicification]

For a couple years there was an active construction zone next to my house. And every day after construction ceased around 200 crows would descend onto the site, walk around on the unfinished condos and hang out together in the interjoining space. It was fascinating watching them "mingle" in a large group and seeing individuals break off to play or chase one another. My ex-wife didn't care much for the constant cawing—but I loved it! It felt much like people watching. Those crows gave me hours of entertainment just staring out my window. 😊

[RayVitoles]

I fed a crow once, and now it caws to me every morning.It actually waits on a pole outside my house every morning and will fly down for me to feed it.I also have the suspicion that it drives away most of the stray cats that come near my house..It is indeed a very smart bird

[finbarscanlonwolf]

I have 4 generations of crow's living at the back of my property. And have two dogs. One of which will chase them & the other just sits there watching them. The crow's know which dog they can trust. And there's a magpie family in the tree next to the crow's & they help each other baby sitting when the partners are off getting food. I've seen the Crow defend the magpie & chick's & the magpie defend the crow's chick's.

[monikakrupicka]

Something to note: corvids (like crows and ravens) have a short lifespan, imagine how much wisdom they would accrue over their lifetimes if they lived as long as humans or elephants!

[caryd]

I’ve been feeding the same 20 crows for the past 5 years. An interesting and complex relationship has formed between us. Not to the point where I can handle them, but we’re in a comfortable space together, and I can approach them up to about 2 feet before they hop, or fly. (Honestly, I don’t want to handle them anyway, as they’re wild birds that shouldn’t be too habituated to humans for their own safety.) Every morning they arrive at 6:00 for breakfast (I haven’t slept-in in 5 years, but it’s alright), which can be dog kibble, ‘Armstrong’ brand unsalted peanuts in the shell, or occasionally diced chicken hearts. Their numbers climb up to over 150 during the coldest months, as best as I can count, and down to around 20 in the spring and summer. They are incredibly communicative with me, and even follow me in the trees when I walk to the store down the road.

Edit: two of them even helped me find my missing cat once!

[MB-upmh]

When I first saw them throwing nuts on the street and then waiting for cars to crack them, I was utterly shocked of how smart they are. Love these guys

[NoteToSelf]

the question everyone should be asking is “why are 7 year olds as smart as crows”