Who's the smartest corvid?
thetyee.ca
Who's the smartest corvid?
1–10 of 139 posts
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#2Probably Grip?
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#3One of the craziest behaviors I have seen was from a murder of American crows in a big city area sidewalk I walk down frequently - occasionally, I have observed homeless and vagrants throwing stuff at them, because sometimes they sleep under the powerlines where the crows like to perch and I think the crows defecate on them or something.
It's well known they can carry grudges, but one day, as I was walking down the sidewalk, a pretty sizable rock smacked the pavement next to me, seemingly out of nowhere. If it had hit my head I would have been hurt. I finally look up and see a big crow staring directly down at me - it had dropped it from the power lines, it had seemingly been intentional, maybe as a warning, I don't know. I attributed it to malice towards the vagrants that harass them.
I was amazed at how much intelligence it would take to 1) form a grudge 2) form intent to threaten/harm, 3) formulate a plan using a weapon with cause -> effect to execute intent, 4) wait for opportunity.
I have observed a lot of very intelligent behaviors from these birds but that was the wildest one. I have seen it happen once since, so I'm convinced it isn't an accident.
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#4One of the craziest behaviors I have seen was from a murder of American crows in a big city area sidewalk I walk down frequently - occasionally, I have observed homeless and vagrants throwing stuff at them, because sometimes they sleep under the powerlines where the crows like to perch and I think the crows defecate on them or something. It's well known they can carry grudges, but one day, as I was walking down the s…
By "sizable rock" do you mean large pebble or small boulder?
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#5One of the craziest behaviors I have seen was from a murder of American crows in a big city area sidewalk I walk down frequently - occasionally, I have observed homeless and vagrants throwing stuff at them, because sometimes they sleep under the powerlines where the crows like to perch and I think the crows defecate on them or something. It's well known they can carry grudges, but one day, as I was walking down the s…
By "sizable rock" do you mean large pebble or small boulder?
A little larger than a golf ball.
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#6Chasing a bird of lesser intelligence so that it slams into an office building window seems especially cruel.
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#7One of the craziest behaviors I have seen was from a murder of American crows in a big city area sidewalk I walk down frequently - occasionally, I have observed homeless and vagrants throwing stuff at them, because sometimes they sleep under the powerlines where the crows like to perch and I think the crows defecate on them or something. It's well known they can carry grudges, but one day, as I was walking down the s…
They're even apparently able to pass their grudges along to other crows who did not have first-hand experience with the subject of the grudge.
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#8One of the craziest behaviors I have seen was from a murder of American crows in a big city area sidewalk I walk down frequently - occasionally, I have observed homeless and vagrants throwing stuff at them, because sometimes they sleep under the powerlines where the crows like to perch and I think the crows defecate on them or something. It's well known they can carry grudges, but one day, as I was walking down the s…
My understanding is crows can recognize individuals, so I would think back to what you did to piss off that crow, or that crow's friends.
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#9One of the craziest behaviors I have seen was from a murder of American crows in a big city area sidewalk I walk down frequently - occasionally, I have observed homeless and vagrants throwing stuff at them, because sometimes they sleep under the powerlines where the crows like to perch and I think the crows defecate on them or something. It's well known they can carry grudges, but one day, as I was walking down the s…
My understanding is crows can recognize individuals, so I would think back to what you did to piss off that crow, or that crow's friends.
I was guessing just a general preference towards anyone in their area. I have certainly never done anything harmful towards them.
Re: Who's the smartest corvid?
#10One of the craziest behaviors I have seen was from a murder of American crows in a big city area sidewalk I walk down frequently - occasionally, I have observed homeless and vagrants throwing stuff at them, because sometimes they sleep under the powerlines where the crows like to perch and I think the crows defecate on them or something. It's well known they can carry grudges, but one day, as I was walking down the s…
My understanding is crows can recognize individuals, so I would think back to what you did to piss off that crow, or that crow's friends.
As demonstrated in humans, the ability to recognize individuals is little impediment to resentment based on group membership.