Birds: Corvus Encoding

Birds: Corvus Encoding

In May, 2006, the crows were gathering in our backyard for a salad bar extravaganza at the beach. One started taunting me and dove into the raised beds to take pecks at the young zucchini and summer squash gourds as they were growing. Picking up a handful of gravel, I threw it at the bird in disgust and went back inside. Outside, though, was a corvus commotion. Several crows could see me inside our cottage and they sat in a nearby shore pine tree squawking at me.

For the next ten years, every time we made a trip to the beach, the crows would gather on the roof or tree branches nearby and taunt me with their loud cackling. Was I imagining things or did the crows imprint my image in their memory bank?

So where did these mean-spirited, “I never forget a face” flying creatures come from? Seems the stories go back to Ancient Greek History …

Greek Myth of Apollo and the Crows

The Greek Sun god Apollo, was the father of demigod, Aesculapius, and the demigod’s mother was a mortal woman by the name of Coronis. During her pregnancy, Coronis fell in love with another human named Ischys. The two were found cheating on Apollo. When a crow reported to Apollo that Coronis was being unfaithful, the Sun god refused to believe the fowl and he cast a curse on the bird which turned all crows from white to black and gave them discordant voices. Yet the adulterous story rankled the god’s heart. When Apollo investigated the crow’s rumor and found it to be true, Apollo sent his twin sister Artemis to burn Coronis at the stake. As she writhed in pain in her death agony, Apollo took his sword and slit her open to rescue the son she bore. Apollo then granted crows cleverness beyond other birds and animals to make up for his anger towards them.

Did Apollo make the crows more clever than humans?

This Crow or That?

Question for you: Can you tell one crow from another? I know I can’t. In this respect, a crow may be smarter than I am, because it can recognize individual human faces.

One scientific team captured crows, tagged them, and released them. Members of the team wore different masks. Crows would dive-bomb and scold people wearing a mask, but only if the mask had been worn by someone who had messed with them.

They Talk About You to Other Crows 

If you think two crows watching you and cawing at each other are talking about you, you’re probably right. In a study by John Marzluff at Univ. of Washington, even crows that were never captured attacked scientists. How did the crows describe their attackers to other crows? Crow communication (language) is poorly understood. The intensity, rhythm and duration of caws seems to form the basis of a possible Corvus language.

They Remember What We Did 

It turns out crows can pass on a grudge to their offspring — even subsequent generations of crows harassed masked scientists.

Another case of crow memory comes from Chatham, Ontario. Around half a million crows would stop in Chatham on their migration route, posing a threat to the farming community’s crops. The mayor of the town declared war on crows and the hunt began. Since then, the crows have bypassed Chatham, flying high enough on their semiannual migration to avoid being shot. This had not, however, stopped them from leaving droppings all over the municipality.

They Use Tools and Solve Problems 

While several animal species use tools, crows are the only non-primates that make new tools. In addition to using sticks as spears and hooks, crows will bend wire to make tools, even if they have never encountered wire before.

In Aesop’s fable of “The Crow and the Pitcher“, a thirsty crow drops stones into a water pitcher to raise the water level to take a drink. Scientists tested whether crows really are this smart. They placed a floating treat in a deep tube. The crows in the test dropped dense objects into the water until the treat floated within reach. They didn’t select objects that would float in the water, nor did they select ones that were too large for the container. Human children gain this understanding of volume displacement around the ages of five to seven.

Crows Plan for the Future 

Planning for the future isn’t only a human trait. For example squirrels cache nuts storing food for lean times. Crows not only plan for future events but consider the thinking of other crows. When a crow caches food, it looks around to see if it’s being observed. If it sees another animal is watching, the crow will pretend to hide its treasure, but will really stash it in its feathers. The crow then flies away to find a new secret spot. If a crow sees another crow hiding its prize, it knows about this little game of bait-and-switch and won’t be fooled. Instead, it will follow the first crow to discover its new hoard.

Crows Adapt to New Situations 

Crows have adapted to life in a human-dominated world. They watch what we do and learn from us. I have seen crows drop nuts in traffic lanes, so the cars will crack them open. They carefully swoop down to gobble the exposed nuts out of their shells. They will even watch traffic lights, only retrieving the nut meat when the crosswalk sign is lit.

Crows have been known to memorize restaurant schedules and garbage days, to take advantage of prime scavenging days and times for the best pickings.

Crows Understand Analogies 

Scientists believe that crows understand abstract concepts, including analogies. Ed Wasserman and his Moscow-based team trained crows to match items that were the same as each other (same color, same shape, or same number). Next, the birds were tested to see if they could match objects that had the same relationship to each other. For example, a circle and a square would be analogous to red and green rather than to two oranges. The crows grasped the concept the first time, without any training in the concepts of “same and different.”

They Can Outsmart Our Favorite Pets

Cats and dogs can solve relatively complex problems, but they can’t make and use tools. In this respect, you could say a crow is smarter than Fido and Felix. If your pet is a parrot, its intelligence is as sophisticated as a crow’s. Yet, intelligence is complicated and difficult to measure. Parrots have human word formation and mimicry down pat; however, with its curved beaks, it’s harder for them to use tools. Similarly, dogs don’t use tools, but they can learn how to open a door and they have adapted to work with humans to get their needs met. Cats are known for being clever and they have mastered humanity to the point of being worshiped.

All things considered, Crows seem to be super smart. They have the memory and communication skills to pass from generation to generation and their spite and cackling can drive you crazy.

References

https://www.thoughtco.com/crows-are-more-intelligent-than-you-think-4156896

Goodwin D. (1983). Crows of the World. Queensland University Press, St Lucia, Qld.

Klein, Joshua (2008). “The amazing intelligence of crows“. TED conference. Retrieved January 1, 2018.

Rincon, Paul (22 February 2005). “Science/Nature | Crows and jays top bird IQ scale“. BBC News. Retrieved January 1, 2018.

Rogers, Lesley J.; Kaplan, Gisela T. (2004). Comparative vertebrate cognition: are primates superior to non-primates?. New York, New York: Springer.

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