People are upvoting this after watching "It's a Wonderful Life" yesterday I see
How to Befriend Crows
81–90 of 229 posts
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#82I saved a blackbird's life once.
He was flying low across the road near my house and I saw him get hit by a car. So I went over to stand in the road and make sure the other cars coming drove around him, and I picked him up. One of his eyes was bloody where he'd been hit, and he was stunned and very distressed. I kind of just knew what to do, I held him in my hands by the side of the road for a few minutes which I think helped him calm down from the shock, and then he jumped down and sat for a bit when he was ready. I stayed and watched him for a while, but I could tell he'd had enough after a bit so I just left him.
I didn't see him fly away but I don't think his things were broken and he wasn't there the next morning. I guess he probably only had one working eye, I don't know how well birds manage with only one eye. Maybe he didn't make it but I hope he did, and I'm sure he would've been stuck shocked and panicking in the road until he got flattened without my help.
It was cool.
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#83All strategies here are about food, I don't think feeding any kind of wild animals is good
Yea, generally when people feed animals it is harmful to the animal or potentially dangerous for humans in a variety of ways or you turn the animals into pests. Is there something special about crows where these things aren't so much a factor?
I think a lot of it is the high intelligence of crows. If you feed say, wild deer or other animals they become dependent on humans to survive or end up sticking around human areas. Crows are already everywhere and their intelligence means that if the food source stops, they can still just do their thing. It doesn't disrupt the ecosystem though it can make them into an annoyance for neighbors.
The more we learn about crows, their behaviors etc the more we realize that we severely understate their intelligence with each new finding.
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Makes sense to me. Crows have caught me tree climbing under them during their evening flights to the communal roost, the result was always a chaotic mess. They just couldn't leave it alone. Without fail, eventually one crow would notice and start the alarm call, then the hundreds of crows arriving at the situation would break off flight and begin mobbing as well. I must have seemed very novel and sneaky. https://yout…
Great video. Were you scared? I once walked under some trees in which many crows were roosting. Scared the crap out of me. I thought they were going to attack. Maybe they had young and wanted to protect them, I don’t know, but I ran.
Thanks. It was a bit scary the first time, but they keep their distance. No resident crows in this grove, afaik.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm already being recognized as "that weird tree guy", even on the ground, and what it would take to test that.
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#85I live in the Oakland hills so our living room is at the height where birds fly. Over the last 5 years I've realized that there are a pair of crows which essentially own the airspace above our house and in front of it. Each time a hawk or owl or crane flies into this airspace, it will be hounded by these 2 crows. And it happens pretty often. (One of the crows only has 1 leg - that's why I know its the same 2 each tim…
I've seen a woodpecker (I think it was) and a crow combine to challenge a falcon, in Edmonton repeatedly; although not in the air. The competition was for tree tops in the ravine and lasted a while with the smaller birds zooming up to harrass the sitting falcon then diving down to lower perches the falcon had trouble getting at. Eventually the falcon had enough and left.
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#86[deleted]
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#87Interacting with birds has been so wonderful for my family.
We live in the mountains in North America. We were tearing down and replacing our deck when the builders came upon a nest with multiple eggs (finch eggs). Thankfully the builders asked us what to do.
Our family decided to do some quick research, build a birdhouse within 10 meters of the previous nest, and put the eggs inside. We were able to watch as the mother bird found her eggs and cared for them through their hatching.
Years later, so many of them come back every Spring. It makes us smile and wonder what would have happened if we wouldn't have moved those eggs a decade ago. I'd like to attribute how friendly the birds seem to be to some sort of anthropomorphism, but that is probably not the case.
Regardless, even the "most basic" birds are wonderful.
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, of course. Your tone has to convey not only, "I am not a predator" but also "I do not perceive you as a threat, and so the purpose of my vocalization is not to scare you away because I perceive you as a threat, and if you come close I am likely to try to harm you in order to defend myself." In nature, the Bayesian prior on an entity that is not a member of your species, or even your tribe, seeking an interaction…
Hummingbirds I've noticed are very curious about other creatures. To a fault even, mantises will sometimes exploit this to catch hummingbirds (they are much more powerful than you might expect). I don't know if this is universal across hummingbird species/groups, but I'm able get very close to them by just patiently standing still by the feeder for 10 or 15 minutes, and they'll start investigating me.
I have noticed this about hummingbirds as well. We have a feeder on our deck and if you are out there when they are feeding expect to receive an inspection. I like to think the thought in their brain is “are you a flower?”
I’ve also had a hummingbird come within a few centimeters of landing on my hand while mounting biking (stopped, of course). I credit my new-at-the-time bright red gloves for that interaction.
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was under the impression that, like chicken, cows became less edible as time passed?
I don't think his comment meant "edibility rises linearly with age." I think it meant "it reaches a peak" and implicitly "and then declines from there."
There's only one way to get to the bottom of this... we're going to have to have eat a lot of crows.
No arguments now, this is science damn it!
Re: How to Befriend Crows
#90My neighbor befriended a crow, and was recently asking around about how to unbefriend the crow, who has become a nuisance stealing every object it could carry from their back porch.