Crows, smarter than you think | John Marzluff | TEDxRainier

One day, I was walking out by the ocean when a cheese stick hit me in the head. I looked around to see who threw it at me. No one around me for miles. Nothing above me. I even looked to see if there was aircraft anywhere in the sky. Nothing for miles. I wasn't near any rocks or cliffs ... just sand and pavement. I did notice a raven on an old power pole about three street widths from me ... watching me very carefully. Actually I felt he was eyeing that cheese stick. I picked it up unwrapped it partially, set it back down and walked off. Yep ... he went and got that cheese stick and ate it. I completely believe he dropped that stick on me to open it for him. There was no other explanation ... at all.

My dad saw an injured crow outside his office and watched another crow come and feed it until it got better and they both left. Super cool.

I used to sit in my back yard and play my acoustic guitar, as I sang songs all the crows would shut up and listen then when I was done make loads of noise till I played another one, they clearly liked the music.

On Crowtube it's titled, 'Humans, smarter than you think'

My dad recued a young injured crow in the 90's. as he got bigger and stronger and used to interacting with us, he started talking! He knew how to say "Hello, Hello Joe, Okay Joe, Hey Joe, Hi Stoney (his name was Stoney), and he mimicked the dogs barking and also imitated human laughter. That seemed to be his favorite, hysterically laughing and playing around. He was truly a character. it was so cool to grow up and be able to witness this

I work at a casual but extremely popular restaurant in S. Austin, TX. The beer garden has a roof, but it's open on all sides so the crows come in and most people consider them a pest. They are so very smart. They will land on tables without people on them but would NEVER swoop food from a person eating or land on a table anyone was eating at. When I bus my tables I'll nonchalantly dump any scraps into side areas where no one will see me. The crows have come to know me now, and they wait close to the little spots where I dump scraps instead of setting up shop where they normally do (by tables of people eating, where they expect crumbs to fall). Recently, a crow missing a foot has come along. Unicrow seems to be just fine, not just in flying, but in the ground and hopping mobility that crows have. Some small part of me hopes that Unicrow was brought to my secret scrap spots by the other crows that know me. This was a ramble. Bottom line, I love birds and I REALLY love crows.

I'm sure crows love to play. Some time ago I had a local crow that used to follow me on my motorcycle, maneuvering along side of me and sometimes crossing over the front of my bike. I used to gather speed, thinking that surely the crow couldn't keep up, when, one day a few miles down the road I noticed a lame crow hobbling across the road. I stopped to see if it was injured and if I could help it in some way. As I stooped down to pick it up, to my surprise, the crow suddenly regained full health and flew away. I'm certain without a doubt, it was the same crow, and the little rascal was laughing at me! ...lol.

My town installed traffic lights that would optically detect pedestrians wanting to cross the street and flash a yellow light to remind traffic to yield. At one of these crossings I saw a crow playing with it - jumping in front of he detector and looking up at the light. The town has replaced the optical detectors with push buttons.

I watched a TV programme on this subject a few years ago. The programme featured Japanese crows living in an urban environment. The crows would pick up a hard piece of food (usually a nut from the local trees) and drop it onto the busy road for the cars to run over it and break it open. The crows would then take a chance to go into the road (amongst all the traffic) and retrieve their food, but they quickly learned that this was very dangerous. They then took to dropping the nuts onto an adjacent pedestrian crossing (crosswalk for you in North America!) which was controlled by traffic lights. They watched as the cars ran over the food, opening it for them and then waited until the lights went to red and the pedestrians started to cross. This was their cue to retrieve their food safely. They are a very smart and sassy species of birds! The programme also showed crows sliding down a snowy rooftop and then returning to the top- because it was fun.

Crows and Ravens, can be like dogs. I had a raven that had a hurt wing. I fixed it and he stayed around for 16yrs. He ate from my hand, he knew words, he liked my cats.

"How many of you used your Hippocampus this morning?" One lady puts her hand up. Guess she drove everyone.

We had a pet crow who rode on the children's tricycle handle bars and used the turbo vent on our roof as a carousel. He did many other amazing things. He never came inside. He'd show up at my daughter's kindergarten playground and played with the kids. While we were at work he visited retired people. He learned my children's names and could call them just like I did. If we went for a walk, he's walk beside us.

Crows/Ravens are remarkable examples of how we know so little about the intelligence of animals.

Last year, my manager at the movie theater saw a super bedraggled looking crow sort of limping around outside. My manager (Jeff) got a small cup of popcorn and threw it out in the grass for the crow to eat. That crow, for the next three months (and only when Jeff was there) would stand outside the window next to the managers station and TAP. It got to the point where the section that bird tapped is completely chipped. Well, I went off to college and came back the next summer to find a small murder of crows living directly outside of the movie theater. They don't beg from customers, only from us employees. They'll stand outside the glass door, look directly at us, and caw at the top of their lungs until someone chases them away or feeds them. If I'm being honest, they've started to grow on me. Sometimes they'll just sit in groups and watch us staffers work, like we're in a zoo.

I would always feed these crow peanuts at my workplace in Monterey, California. I would go to the back of one of the adjacent buildings to indulge in a cigarette, and they would hide behind this generator, knowing when I was about to come into view(3 of them). They would immediately jump out in front of me(at a reasonable distance) and Caw Caw Caw. They would scare the bleep out of me. I am not kidding, but it seemed as if after this, they would laugh amongst each other. It was definitely indicative of their jovial like behavior.

In Durban - South Africa, in the sixties, the town council decided there were too many crows. So they appointed one man to cull a whole lot of them. Within a week every crow in town knew this guy and would scream at him. Even years later, long after the culling had stopped, they would still scream at him.

I've told this story before, but I have my own anecdote about crows from when I was regularly commuting to and from school in Norway. Here in Bergen we have a city rail system, and the rails themselves are depressed into the street (to allow cars to drive over them). My regular bus-stop was right at these tracks, and also right next to the ocean (a bay). As I was waiting for the bus each day I would regularly see crows come to drop shells into the rail depressions - then promptly leave, only to return a couple of minutes later - always right as the next rail-car was scheduled to pass (about 10 minutes between) and sit and wait. When the rail car passed it of course cracked the shells, and the crows would then go retrieve their prize and fly off. I made it a point to predict the next rail-car based on the crows waiting, and it was rarely more than a minute off. It seemed clear to me that these crows not only clearly understood how to use the rail-cars to their advantage but also had an impeccable grasp grasp of the timing/schedule to minimize their efforts in exploiting it. That was pretty impressive I thought. I wish I had a smart-phone back then to have recorded it.

Not just birds.....octopi also demonstrate a lot of these traits. Very fascinating

I love crows. They're smart and amazingly inventive. But what I love most about them is the care they lavish on their offspring. A young crow spends years with its parents, being protected and taught. Gotta love that. Besides, carrion eaters serve a VERY useful purpose. For that reason, I also love vultures.

We have a Raven couple who call our little valley home. They are very kind to each other, feeding each other, kissing, flying in beautiful dances. They bring us presents as well, clusters of ripe berries, big earth worms are waiting for us on our stoop. They are dotting parents to between 5 to 2 babies each spring. They bring them to us. They teach the babies to fly. They all leave for a month or so in the late summer. We think they are teaching their young and finding a home territory for each. One year there was timid, slow growing chick. The allowed it to stay in their territory. It grew and prospered. It still makes an appearance and the folks don't attack it. Very good friends and nice to share our lives with.