- Corvus brachyrhynchos -

- Corvus brachyrhynchos -

Crow

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Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) are considered to be most intelligent of birds, far more intelligent than parrots, eagles, owls and other birds. Not only can crows count (at least up to four) but they also are good at mimicking other birds and animals. As opposed to cats that are thought to have at most six or seven different sounds, crows are said to have at least 23 different calls. While I don't know the origin, it is said that by splitting a crows tongue, it can be made to talk. Actually, they do a good job of mimicking humans.

William Bartram in his story Tom provides an introduction to the wiles and whims of his pet crow.

Regarding the ability to count, a crow, having recognized that there are three or four people visible at one time, will know when one of the four has disappeared and will continue to search for the missing one. Why is this important to the crow? Because they are often hunted for sport and if one of the hunters goes into hiding and the others walk away, the crow (or crows) will continue to be suspicious and not drop their guard until the hidden one finally gives up and leaves cover. They seem to have a long attention span and are willing to wait out the hidden hunter.

Not only are they able to count but they also have the ability to distinguish whether a hunter may be carrying a gun or just a stick. From personal experience, I remember that crows that were attracted to a large pecan tree not far from our house on the farm in Texas during the fall of the year when the pecans were mature and beginning to pop from the husk, would keep an eye on our house. Now we hated to share the pecans with the squirrels and crows; and would either shoot at them with the intent of either doing mortal damage or else just to scare them away. Seems that the crows would post a sentinel to keep an eye on the house. If you went into the yard with a stick or nothing at all, you would hear them "cawing", and they would go about their business of stealing the pecans. But, if you happened to be carrying a gun, the entire flock would with certainty, break into a lot of soundings and take flight (only to return when you went back into the house.

In the book, An Exaltation of Larks , by James Lipton, a number of crows together is called, a murder of crows. This seems to be a harsh reminder that crows can be cruel. They after all are wild animals and have learned survival tactics. Most of us have observed crows feeding on carrion on the highways. They don't stop with just the dead and dying but will attack nest of birds to feed on eggs and the young and will also attack small animals. In fact, they will aggressively attack large animals as well (Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds serves as a reminder that the crow can be quite aggressive>.

Yet the crow is a social animal, seeming to enjoy human companionship as related in Bartram's tale, and they have a complex social structure in their flocks. As I mentioned earlier, they seem to designate one bird as the sentinal. It is not known what the social status to that particular bird is, whether the patriarch of the family or just one with a bit more smarts than the others (?). At any rate if one watches a flight of crows as they return to their favored roost in the late afternoon, they appear to have a set pattern in the way in which they return.

Arthur Cleveland Bent has written a large number of books about birds but the one I find most interesting is the one entitled, "Jays, Crows and Titmice which was published by the Smithsonian Institute as bulletin #191 back in 1946.

I have chosen to use the crow and his relatives as the descriptive words for my various pages on the web. They include; jackdaw, magpie, raven, crow, corvus, rook and jay.

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