howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas
where we have LOTS of crows. I love having them around because
they eat all kinds of critters, bugs, worms, small reptiles, etc.
The other day when I did a post about the fire-starter birds of
Australia and learned how smart those guys were I started to
wonder how smart ARE birds anyway? Ya know, how smart can they
be?
This led me to discover something about crows which I think you may
not know but might find interesting.
First of all, crows are very social and work together on different
projects like gathering food and driving away predators. They're also
very good at warning each other of approaching danger and I've
witnessed this behavior in the crows we have here in Texas.
By the way, everything seems to be bigger here, the crows we have
here are huge, more the size of a hawk, they have to stand at least
15 inches tall.
There's a couple of experiments that demonstrate just how dog gone
smart these guys are. In one experiment they trained the birds to put
cards into a "vending machine" slot in order to get a piece of meat.
The cards were two different sizes, a small size gave a small piece and
a large card gave a larger piece. In that way the crows could choose
which size they wanted. Of course they learned real fast to put in the
larger size for the larger size meat.
Then the scientists took the cards away and put in a sheet of card-
board. Well you know what happened next. The crows used their
talons and beaks to rip off a size and shape matching the large card
that they were using to get the larger pieces of meat! lol.
source
In another experiment they presented the crows with a beaker of
water which was half full and had a worm floating on top. The water
level was too low for the crow to reach and the beaker was too
narrow for it to get down to the worm.
They had a selection of rocks, pieces of wood and other items laying
around the beaker. So you can guess what the crows did right? They
not only selected the items which would fit into the beaker but they
selected only the rocks because they knew the rocks would go to the
bottom and displace the water, thus raising the water level and the
worm high enough for them to eat the worm!
In the wild many crows have been observed using tools in the form of
sticks to get to worms or larvae located in holes found in logs. But it
gets better because they use sticks shaped like a hook in order to
grab hold of the food!
source
Another discovery researchers have observed is that crows will use
hooked sticks to connect objects like metal nuts. They hold the stick
in their beak, put it through the center of the nut and fly away with it.
Scientists say they are the only animal known to use a tool to haul
away an object in this manner but flying away with both objects.
But wait, here is the coolest story of all. There's an 8 year old girl in
Seattle, Washington who started feeding crows that were in the area
of the family's backyard, she would take little pieces of meat and leave
them for the crows. No big deal, lots of people feed birds right?
here she is, 8yr old Gabi Mann:
source
Anyone know what happened next? The crows started leaving gifts for
her! lol. I kid you not..they still do in fact. They leave coins, shiny
objects, glass beads, paperclips, earrings, they even left her a heart-
shaped pendant! Probably snatched if off another kid who wasn't
feeding them!
here's a small selection of what the crows have brought Gabi:
source
When the story came out researchers came calling to check it out
and they confirmed it was true. It was the first story of it's kind that
they knew of but as it got out on the news there were other people
who confirmed being left gifts after feeding crows.
here they are on Gabi's backyard birdbath:
source
ha! I love that but what do you call it? It sure ain't conditioning or
instinct. It's either a type of trading or of thankfulness!
Thankfulness??? Do birds have emotions? lol. I don't know.
Leaving gifts because of gratitude would mean they have morals!
Is that possible?
I don't want to upset anyone but when I was a kid and didn't know
any better I use to shoot them for target practice. Now that I know
how smart they are I feel bad. Now I have the uttmust respect for
them.
I'd love to hear any ideas any of you have on the questions I've
raised here, it's above my pay grade to understand these amazing
birds!
thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
ps- ya know, you might just be a redneck if:
Your wife wants to stop at the gas station to see if they've got the
new Darrell Waltrip Budweiser wall clock!