"Padraig" wrote in message
...
"Cathy F." wrote in message
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;-) Crows are apparently much shyer than I'd assumed they'd be. I've
been feeding several of them for a couple of years now (peanuts & walnuts
tossed out onto my front walk, drive, or lawn), and only a couple of them
are now brave enough to come within about 15 feet of me. But they sure
come swooping over as soon as they realize something's on offer, & sit up
in the trees or on the wires until they figure it's "safe" enough to come
down & to get their treats. Then they often do a side-step feinting sort
of deal till they get to the goodies. And if a squirrel shows up, they
never try to block the squirrel - always jump up into the air & avoid the
squirrel instead. Are fun(ny) to watch.


They are reputed to be extremely intelligent. I'm not sure I buy that
idea. If they were that smart they ought to be able to figure out the
difference when somebody's a threat or if somebody's a friend.

Yep, I've heard & read enough accounts over the last 15 years or so that I
think they're quite intelligent.

1 - Crows who figured out that cars can crack nuts for them:
http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/brain/

2 - Then there's Betty the Crow:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science...rt-crows_x.htm

3 - Then there were the crows that a grad student observed (I don't have the
cite for this anymore):she observed a crow pick up a large disposable coffee
cup that was sitting in the road at the bottom of a hill. The crow picked
it up, went to the top of the hill, got into the cup, & rolled down. Some
fellow crows noticed & went over to join in, & they took turns rolling down
the hill in the cup. Apparently just for fun - playing.

4 - Then there's the story that I heard Jean Craighead George (children's
author - "Julie of the Wolves") tell at an education workshop:

When her daughter was little, they had a semi-pet crow, Crowbar; he'd been
injured & they'd nursed him to health. He continued to hang around after he
was fine - lived out in their apple tree, & would fly in through open
kitchen window at breakfast time in nice weather & sit on the back of a
chair, then go back outside for the day.

One morning her daughter was outside playing in the sandbox & came inside to
complain that Crowbar was driving her nuts, because he kept grabbing at the
little aluminum pie tins she had in the sandbox, & wouldn't leave her alone.
Jean C-G. told her daughter to go play on the slide instead since birds
can't slide, because of the texture of their feet. She then watched out eh
window - yes, daughter was sliding down the slide.

Crowbar flew to the top of the slide & stepped onto the metal part, but of
course he couldn't slide down. He looked around from up there, flew over to
the sandbox & puicked up an aluminum pie tin, put it on top of the slide,
hopped in, & slid down. :-)

There was a weird story I heard when I was a kid. One of my chums told me
that if you raided a nest and caught a young crow they could be taught to
speak just like a parrot only better and much faster --- but you had to
slit the tongue lengthwise first.

I don't know how stories like that start but I heard it over and over
again from a lot of people so it wasn't something he made up. I honestly
doubt that anybody ever tried it. And if they DID - why should slitting
the tongue enable them to speak better than a non-cut tongue?

Pretty gory. If I were a crow and somebody slit my tongue I'd be smart
enough to get away at the first chance.

This I've never heard, but agreed - gory.

Cathy


Pat