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How to Befriend Crows

fediscience.org

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Re: How to Befriend Crows

#151

Post by vgb2k18 »

phillc73 wrote: post #23

My Mum did this with magpies in Australia. She lives alone in a small rural town and started feeding these two magpies, that seemed to like her garden, with small pieces of meat. Over the course of a couple of years, the magpie pair even brought their chicks along for a free feed. At one point there were six or seven regular breakfast guests. One of the original magpies would practically eat our of my mother's hand,…

The magpie outside my place does perch on my arm to eat food, but also engages in a friendly game of "guess which hand the food is in", by giving a gentle peck (I flip the food back and forth between my hands like a carnival game then close the food in one hand quickly).

Re: How to Befriend Crows

#152

Post by smusamashah »

There is a saying in my region told by our elders.

If crows are cawing it means there are guests outside.

It won't make sense in urban areas much but it does in rural. Since they are intelligent and good at recognizing faces, there cawing can mean there is someone unknown outside.

Re: How to Befriend Crows

#153

Post by kposehn »

I’ve got ~55 ravens near my home that know me very well and always come around for treats (unsalted unroasted cashews). Over the last few seasons I’ve gotten to see a number of fledglings getting trained, gotten to know their various personalities and been fortunate to learn a great deal about them.

They’re amazingly intelligent and very gregarious once they trust you. A particularly brave one will even perch just out of reach and snatch cashews out of the air. Others will hover over me in the breeze asking for treats and catch them as well.

They definitely train you too - they know where I live. If they don’t get fed for a while, they’ll croak their frustrations down my chimney at me.

Amazing birds and I feel very fortunate to have formed some bond with them.

Re: How to Befriend Crows

#156

Post by dtgriscom »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #108
maxbond wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 can go outside holding a feeder and as long as I stand still, after about a minute the hummers will feed while I'm holding the thing. Brave little birds.

Nasty little birds. We put out a feeder, and they battle each other for it, even when there's plenty for all. It's a good thing they don't decide to gang up on humans; they could do a lot of damage while we're still looking at where they were a hundred wingbeats ago.

Re: How to Befriend Crows

#157

Post by dtgriscom »

oasisbob wrote: post #42
prox wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My amateur theory is that talking makes you less likely to be a predator. You basically say “here I am”, Predators tend to be quiet and sneak up on their prey. I think the tone does indeed help somewhat in my experience.

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…

Looks like that scene from Kiki's Delivery Service.

Re: How to Befriend Crows

#159

Post by dtgriscom »

kstenerud wrote: post #70
tasty_freeze wrote: post #10

My wife set up a bird feeder on our floor to ceiling glass windows in our living room -- it is a plexiglass module with suction cups. It was nice seeing the birds, but it was really entertaining watching the squirrels trying to get the food. At first she tried to thwart the them, but in no time started recognizing the squirrels as individuals and noticing their personality and behavioral differences, and gave them na…

Reminds me of the Twirl-A-Squirrel bird feeder. It usually works, but sometimes there are some VERY tenacious squirrels! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgDa_cpgHWs

My parents had one of those near a window. The squirrel would jump on and go for a ride, banging against the window (leaving the most entertaining skid marks). The payoff: this would shake seeds out of the feeder which the squirrel could then eat off of the ground.

Re: How to Befriend Crows

#160

Post by spiffytech »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #10

My wife set up a bird feeder on our floor to ceiling glass windows in our living room -- it is a plexiglass module with suction cups. It was nice seeing the birds, but it was really entertaining watching the squirrels trying to get the food. At first she tried to thwart the them, but in no time started recognizing the squirrels as individuals and noticing their personality and behavioral differences, and gave them na…

My friend who does this warns to be careful - if you stop feeding them, you've taught them there's food in the house, and they will find a way to break in.
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