Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

audubon.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 96 posts

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#71

Post by WalterBright »

sejje wrote: post #41
WalterBright wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing grows in my lawn. Everything grows like mad in the non-lawn areas.

You have big shady trees? That'll make it hard to grow grass. Some trees put out a chemical barrier to growth, as well. Red Cedar and Black Walnut do it around here.

Interesting. The main trees around here are douglas firs, cedars, maples, hemlock, and madronas. Come to think about it, quite a variety. They all grow without any assistance. They're murdering the cherry trees I planted, which don't do very well.

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#72

Post by vanderZwan »

kobalsky wrote: post #61
smurda wrote: post #15

Crows can remember a dangerous person and tell their friends about it. From "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows" ( https://faculty.washington.edu/wirsinga/Cornell2011.pdf ) We exposed wild crows to a novel ‘dangerous face’ by wearing a unique mask as we trapped, banded and released 7 –15 birds at five study sites near Seattle, WA, USA. An immediate scolding response to the d…

This is tangential but our monk parakeets make a special sound when they see something they don't like. We have learned to identify it, and hilarously, our dogs did too. Now when they see something weird (recently, a bird of prey in street light they saw through the window) they sound the alarm and the dogs go absolutely crazy.

> and hilarously, our dogs did too.

Tangent to your tangent, but this is one reason why a guard llama works so well together with guard dogs for protecting livestock.

A llama is much more alert to potential danger than, say, sheep. Which actually is an understatement: sheep have the added problem of not making any noises when attacked or eaten by predators, and therefore not alerting guard dogs.

Dogs can teach themselves to interpret the llama's body language and pro-actively chase away coyotes or foxes or whatever it is that the llama spotted.

I've seen this in action on a family friend's sheep farm.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#73

Post by card_zero »

the_af wrote: post #50
assemblyman wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do you but I love both crows and pigeons. Pigeons are awesome once you get to know them and they don't spread disease which is a common misconception - https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240620-why-do-people-pe... From the article: "One study found that, between 1941 and 2004, there were just 207 reports of pathogens transmitted from pigeons to humans – anywhere in the world. In all, there were 13 recorded deat…

Oh, I don't think pigeons spread disease. I just think city pigeons are filthy and poop all over everything. Frequently mutilated, missing toes or whole limbs. Also frequently run over by cars. I like the kind of wild pigeons you can see outside cities. I reserve my contempt for city pigeons, which I like to call "flying rats". I also like crows, but there aren't any (that I can see) where I live. I've seen them in o…

The missing toes thing seems related to the existence of polyester thread and similar strong synthetic fibers. I'm vague on why they encounter it a lot - does it make attractive nest material? - and as to why they can't get it off their feet, well I guess pigeons are bad at untying knots, but from what I've observed tangling with constricting fibers looks like the mechanism of action.

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#75

Post by wyrdcurt »

the_af wrote: post #29
petcat wrote: post #6

The crows around my house are generally cool unless I do something they don't like and then they'll remember my face for all of eternity and mob me whenever I am outside.

Out of curiosity, what can you do to upset a crow so much? Shoo them? (Where I live there are no crows, please excuse my ignorance. Only common pigeons, as filthy as they are dumb, and they don't seem to hold a grudge, or think much of humans... or at all).

Interesting fact you may or may not already know: the pigeons most commonly found around human habitats are feral domestic pigeons. They generally aren't bothered by us because they're bred not to be! Corvids on the other hand are 100% wild (which makes their interactions with humans all the more fascinating, imo).

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#77

Post by veunes »

mlmonkey wrote: post #36

I like the fact that they are so ... observant. A specific crow (I recognize him due to the missing feathers around his collar) will spend a while sitting on a tree outside my window, observing me for no reason. I do feed them generally by leaving peanuts in a specific area in the backyard early in the morning, and I'm sure this one partakes in the feast; but I have never rewarded his presence in any form, and yet th…

The iPad reflection trick is hilarious. You are basically observing him observing you while carefully pretending not to observe him.

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#78

Post by veunes »

oddsockmachine wrote: post #59
mlmonkey wrote: post #36

I like the fact that they are so ... observant. A specific crow (I recognize him due to the missing feathers around his collar) will spend a while sitting on a tree outside my window, observing me for no reason. I do feed them generally by leaving peanuts in a specific area in the backyard early in the morning, and I'm sure this one partakes in the feast; but I have never rewarded his presence in any form, and yet th…

I was told (by my partner, who works with birds in many capacities) that they consider a "direct" or head-on look to be something of a threat, as a predator would do. Consider looking at them sideways, with only one eye -as they would to each other- and see if it makes a difference.

That would explain why they sometimes seem perfectly relaxed until you look directly at them

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#79

Post by veunes »

smurda wrote: post #15

Crows can remember a dangerous person and tell their friends about it. From "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows" ( https://faculty.washington.edu/wirsinga/Cornell2011.pdf ) We exposed wild crows to a novel ‘dangerous face’ by wearing a unique mask as we trapped, banded and released 7 –15 birds at five study sites near Seattle, WA, USA. An immediate scolding response to the d…

What gets me is that it is not just "crows remember faces". Apparently the information can outlive the original encounter entirely. You can end up on the neighborhood crow blacklist without some of the crows ever having met you before.

Re: An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations

#80

Post by veunes »

kobalsky wrote: post #61
smurda wrote: post #15

Crows can remember a dangerous person and tell their friends about it. From "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows" ( https://faculty.washington.edu/wirsinga/Cornell2011.pdf ) We exposed wild crows to a novel ‘dangerous face’ by wearing a unique mask as we trapped, banded and released 7 –15 birds at five study sites near Seattle, WA, USA. An immediate scolding response to the d…

This is tangential but our monk parakeets make a special sound when they see something they don't like. We have learned to identify it, and hilarously, our dogs did too. Now when they see something weird (recently, a bird of prey in street light they saw through the window) they sound the alarm and the dogs go absolutely crazy.

That is fascinating. The parakeets are basically providing an early warning system, and the dogs have figured out enough of their "language" to subscribe to it.
Post reply on HN