The Intelligence of Crows and Ravens

As I look out my window on another rainy day in the Southern Tier, I see several types of birds. Robins, Swallows, Starlings, Red-winged Blackbirds, Ravens and Crows. Most people don't like Ravens and Crows; they are loud and eat farmer's crops. But they are interesting and you can appreciate them more if you know a bit about their "private lives." Crows, Jays, Ravens and Magpies make up the Corvid Family of birds.

Corvids are a lot of things- fairly ubiquitous, numerous, loud, visible and smart. Smart? Those annoying creatures? Yes smart, especially Ravens and Crows.

I have first-hand knowledge of the intelligence of Crows. We had a crow that we used for programming at one of the places I worked. The Crow would let you pet him and encouraged it even by bending his head down when you came up to his cage. But when he was done, he let you know by biting you. And you couldn't keep a jess on him. A jess is a leather bracelet that is used to attach birds to a glove for programming or falconry. The curators tried many kinds of jesses and many types of knots and configurations for the jesses and the Crow figured out how to get every one of them off.

Ravens and Crows have been trained to count and Ravens to speak English words. Ravens have been seen playing by sliding down icy rocks, and the aerial acrobatics they are sometimes seen doing may be partly courtship and partly play activity. There are documented cases of Crows helping injured members of the flock by distracting predators, and of them using tools like twigs. They have been seen dropping clam shells and even small turtles from a height to break them and get at the meat inside. All are examples of higher cognitive ability. So next time you see or hear a Crow or Raven and think about how you'd like to eradicate or quiet it, stop and think about what may be going on in THEIR head, because likely something is.