Smart birds are rare

[JOEPRO]

Yes the feathered kind.

Big crows were waiting near a service station and watching me eat a sandwich the other day. It struck me how smart the little dudes were. Proper eye contact and questioning head movements. Crows are a very intelligent animal this was a neat encounter for me.

I was on a construction site visit so I'll stop by the next time and see if they are still there no doubt they will be. There was about 5 of them. All very healthy and they got my crusts in the end up



Anyone have encounters with crows?

 

[dobbslc]

Not crows but starlings, they did the same thing looking at me and waiting for the grub

 

[roofman]

Sitting in my van yesterday at work having a butty and enjoying the company of a cheeky robin..took only 10 mins to have it feeding right at the bottom of the van door from the tree, made my day.

 

[Barking Mat]

One hopped on my friends shoulder in 2018, and became a lifelong friend.

I have no experience of them.

 

[mtt.tr]

On a site the tug drivers had domesticated a few crows, you could call them, they would sit on the mirror bar to be fed out of your hand.

 

[Bornfree]

Yes the feathered kind.

Big crows were waiting near a service station and watching me eat a sandwich the other day. It struck me how smart the little dudes were. Proper eye contact and questioning head movements. Crows are a very intelligent animal this was a neat encounter for me.

I was on a construction site visit so I'll stop by the next time and see if they are still there no doubt they will be. There was about 5 of them. All very healthy and they got my crusts in the end up

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Anyone have encounters with crows?

I think your crows are rook's

 

[JOEPRO]

On a site the tug drivers had domesticated a few crows, you could call them, they would sit on the mirror bar to be fed out of your hand.

I think these ones would be trainable for that definitely. They stood watching me intently and making full eye contact. Next time I might try had feeding them something, what's the worst can happen!

 

[Dev]

A rook on its own is a crow. A crow in a crowd is a rook

 

[Cobbler]

Don’t they reckon crows & the others in the family have similar reasoning to a 5 year old child?

 

[redlig]

Last year in the spring when the weather was good a robin would stand on the wall by the back door waiting for me to take my breakfast to the barbie table and then follow me up the garden and sit down at which point he would land on the table waiting for crumbs. I got him to within 3" but never got him to eat out of my hand. Didn't appear this year unfortunately.

 

[Richiew]

Robins have no fear. When I occasionally do work in the garden, one always stands close, generally supervising and looking for morsels that I've dug up.

 

[roofman]

Don’t they reckon crows & the others in the family have similar reasoning to a 5 year old child?

yes the Corvids out brain a trained dog too...i love birds but the wife's cat stops visitors dropping in around here

 

[roofman]

Last year in the spring when the weather was good a robin would stand on the wall by the back door waiting for me to take my breakfast to the barbie table and then follow me up the garden and sit down at which point he would land on the table waiting for crumbs. I got him to within 3" but never got him to eat out of my hand. Didn't appear this year unfortunately.

few summers ago i had a pair made a nest in a hanging basket under my carport, had them feeding off my knee with live mealworms. They stayed all summer and had 2 lays but the second lay during fledgling 4 of them were got at by my dog at the time and eaten i was so angry i got shut of the dog and have never had another dog since.

 

[Keith 66]

There is now a fairly large group of crows that feasts on the abundance of clams that live in the mud along Benfleet creek they usually search the scour edge of the channels but after heavy rain the clams get uncovered & they have a bonanza. They use several concreted areas at the top of slipways to bash the shells open. It appears to be a relatively recent behaviour and i have seen adults hunting for shellfish with youngsters in tow.

 

[brightspark]

crows are very intelligent can use tools and have facial recognition go in to a big clump of there nesting trees and hide with a shotgun they wont come back in till you leave then they will 2 of you go back in and one hide under a cammy net and one walk back out and they still wont come back till your mate comes out there not stupid

 

[Richiew]

I used to think I didn't like crows, (We have many) until I encountered a pair of Jays this summer. Never heard so many distress calls going off in the road. Absolute killers going after eggs and young. Quite disturbing to listen to.

They are crow family too. Magpies but grey, sorta thing.

 

[brightspark]

i sometimes go down greggs get a pasty and a dry bred bun sit in the van outside eat pasty and break bread bun up and chuck it out for the starlings . loads fly down so i then hold bits out next to the wing mirror and they come and sit on it and take the bread out of my hand hold the bread up and they fly by and take it in flight

 

[Popcorn]

I think your crows are rook's

Yep they are Rooks crows have black beaks, Crows, Ravens and Rooks are all part of the corvid family along with jackdaws, magpies, jays and quite a few others.

 

[Aerohead]

Crows are well known for eating pretty much every other birds eggs or hatchlings in the nest. In Midwest USA farmers will tell you where they are flocking during migrations, as they can do significant crop damage.

Gillie suits and my camo patterned Browning BPS 12g really fool crows, when combined with an owl decoy. Ton of experience here: http://crowbusters.com/cgi-bin/index.asp

 

[Richiew]

I think our local crows are pretty well domesticated. The live off Gregg's pasties and white bread like most of the locals. The Jays were proper wild birds and it showed. Real predators. The crows, not so much. Easier meals to be had elsewhere when you know.