These Bird Brains are Something to Crow About...
They can use tools, work in teams, and memorize your face.
For those who are familiar with relatively tame terms of derision—or who just watched The Three Stooges growing up—the phrase “bird brain” is not a kind one. After all, usually a bigger brain means more intellectual firepower. Baby humans take longer to develop (and are vulnerable longer) than newborns of other species, but in exchange we develop bigger brains—letting us do things like invent fire and build civilizations. Not a bad trade! But smaller does not always mean worse. According to Smithsonian Magazine, crow brains are pretty impressive. They have about the same number of neurons as some monkeys and those neurons are densely packed, allowing faster processing times and higher intelligence than other birds.
The American Crow is a familiar sight and sound. These large black birds do not scare easily into taking flight. Instead, they seem to sit and study you with a purpose. Don’t be fooled by their loud, interrupting cawing—they can memorize your face. That’s right, if you have angered your local American Crow, it will know you by you face, even ten years after the encounter. Crows will make note if you displeased them and will spread the word that you’re a threat. One professor at the University of Washington tested this in an experiment, deliberately irritating some American Crows and then walking around campus to see if they would remember. Now, years later, the crows on campus still call out in alarm at the sight of him and try to drive him away.
This defensive behavior is useful for crows, but also fits in with their reputation for being an bad omen. After all, a group of crows is called a murder of crows and (in the West) black is a color associated with death and mourning. American Crows also will notice when once of their own has met an untimely demise. If a dead crow is discovered, others will gather around it to raise up a storm of calls. This is likely to share threat information, such as who is the perpetrator or if this particular location should be noted as dangerous to linger in. Regardless, this only adds to the perception of crows being ominous and doesn’t stop people from speculating about murders of crows holding “funerals” rather than "homicide investigations” or “autopsy reports.”
Crows are also avid tool users, finding creative solutions to the problems they face. This is especially true when it comes to food—and these birds will eat nearly anything. Can’t open that delicious nut on your own? Drop it in the road and wait for a car to run it over. Want water from a water fountain? Take turns with a partner pressing on the button while the other drinks. Did an otter just catch a tasty fish? Better have a friend distract it while you can claim that prize for your own. Does a garbage truck regularly drive by with nutritious morsels? Better memorize its route and follow it for continuous snackage. Need to dig into a fence hole for food? Sharpen a stick and use it as a foraging fork.
Finally, these birds are very social and often work together to find shelter and food or defend themselves. In the winter, American Crows sleep together in large roosts of up to millions of birds. That’s a lot of birds! They are also often confused with the similarly colored and shaped Common Raven and Fish Crow, but are smaller than Common Raven and don’t have a nasal quality to their calls like the Fish Crow. The American Crow is found year-round in almost the entire continental United States.
Until next (Bird!) time,
Grover