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Who's the smartest corvid?

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Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#51

Post by lowestprimate »

fritzo wrote: post #4
JohnMakin wrote: post #3

One 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 large pebble the size of a small pebble

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#52

Post by HankB99 »

pflanze wrote: post #47
cubefox wrote: post #21

Here is one playing ball: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QqLU-o7N7Kw This one is feeding a dog: https://youtube.com/watch?v=q7Z0yZhyz0s Teasing an owl: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y0i9tjnW7r0

> Teasing an owl: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y0i9tjnW7r0 There was a video on youtube about a crow coming to a human and making that sound, also in winter with snow; commenters agreed that it was probably thirsty and was imitating running water that way to get the human to give it water. The human in the video didn't get that. But here in the end we can see the crow eating snow, which may confirm that it is really a…

> Not sure what that has to do with the owl--"teasing"

I wonder if they're just amusing themselves (by being little jerks.)

One day in early spring, I thought I heard a Red Tail Hawk screeching in a tree directly above me. I stood back, searching for it. I never spotted it despite the leaves barely out on the tree. But I did spot a Blue Jay hopping around some lower branches.

When I got home I looked up Blue Jay behavior and found that they do imitate the calls of Red Tail Hawks, among others.

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#53

Post by JohnMakin »

IAmBroom wrote: post #23
JohnMakin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little larger than a golf ball.

Something that produces a loud exclamation in a movie character, but possible permanent brain damage IRL.

Yea, what creeped me out, is this must have been done before, and got whatever effect the bird intended. hard to say what it’s motives were of course but they’re smart enough to know what they are doing

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#54

Post by metalman »

My bet is on Ravens, who live a long time, and the ancients among them get a white flight feathers in the wings which I have seen once, up close in a nieghbors yard who was closer with the critters than humans. My fealing of ravens inteligence is based on there complex behaviors and one particular individual,who is bat shit insane, and makes the wildest strangest sounds and calls that are impossible to ignore for hours, but survives year to year, ie:dumb things never go crazy and or never survive there disfunctions. ravens also fly upside down regularly, and have been filmed pranking wolves by pulling there tails, and there is strong evidence for ravens working as spotters and leading wolves to easy/injured prey that the ravens get to clean up after the kill

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#55

Post by mikestorrent »

Aboutplants wrote: post #16

Wonderful timing. Me and my daughter just started to feed and befriend a crow in our backyard. We started by putting out a few pieces of cat foot, shaking the plastic container and tapping on the table we put it on to signal to the crow we had put out food. Within only 2 days the crow has learned to come and swoop down for his meal within just a minute or two after he does his normal fly-by passes. Now only about 5 d…

I have been working on this as well and have a crowbuddy who enjoys what I feed him. I want him to do more, but haven't gotten him to yet.

A couple years ago I was doing this and they brought me a chicken head as a gift. Thanks... I guess?

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#56

Post by Terr_ »

JohnMakin wrote: post #36
prerok wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading an article in National Geographic of how crow's brains are much more interconnected than is the norm in mammals, i.e. IIRC they have a higher density of synapses between neurons. From that article, it seems that the usual brain weight vs. body weight to determine intelligence, which seems can be used to approximate intelligence in different species of mammals, cannot be used for birds (or at least…

I've read there's also a social aspect - crows are extremely social creatures, as are humans, and other highly intelligent animals like whales. That does seem to be a common denominator. Regarding that, I'm reminded of another story - on my daily walk near work, there was a dead crow on the pavement. 5 or so crows were standing all around it, doing nothing really. Even me passing close by did not trigger them to fly…

> [Social creatures] does seem to be a common denominator.

One theory is that it drives the creatures to internally model or simulate others intents and reactions, in a way which is a far more regular, consistent, and nuanced than any modeling of various prey or predators.

Further along that path is modeling future-me in plans, and layers of "I know they will know I know they know, so..."

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#57

Post by mikestorrent »

m463 wrote: post #37
MisterTea wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My daughter wants to start training it to bring trinkets or coins so that is probably next on the agenda. Coins? Screw that. Go right to bills.

bills are fragile, bitcoin might be better long-term.

Working on training my crowbuddy so that he bites the gold coins and only brings real ones, was getting too much iron pyrite

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#58

Post by kibwen »

ifwinterco wrote: post #28
helterskelter wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crows in country will wait for a newborn deer to be left alone in a field by their mothers shortly after birth to peck the baby's eyes out so it dies and the crow can eat it later. My neighbor had told me about this happening, and maybe a month later I saw a fawn with its eyes pecked out shortly after it had died. The doe just sat at the edge of the field by it all night. So sad, but really smart of the crows. Crows…

They also do this to lambs, they're smart but evil

> smart but evil

Sadly I have yet to see evidence that something can be smart without being evil.

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#59

Post by kibwen »

Aboutplants wrote: post #16

Wonderful timing. Me and my daughter just started to feed and befriend a crow in our backyard. We started by putting out a few pieces of cat foot, shaking the plastic container and tapping on the table we put it on to signal to the crow we had put out food. Within only 2 days the crow has learned to come and swoop down for his meal within just a minute or two after he does his normal fly-by passes. Now only about 5 d…

Meanwhile, 40,000 years ago: "Me and my daughter just started to feed and befriend a wolf skulking near our camp."

Re: Who's the smartest corvid?

#60

Post by doodlebugging »

markdown wrote: post #50
fritzo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "sizable rock" do you mean large pebble or small boulder?

Where I am from, a rock is by definition huge. It sounds like the bird dropped a stone.

If the stone the crow dropped weighed a stone, that's a big fuckin' rock where I come from.
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