On sunny days, I often sit outside on the patio furniture that overlooks the small feeder in my backyard and observe. My dog regularly joins me at my side – we make a strong birdwatching duo, with his attention drawn to anything that moves and my recently learned identification skills. The feeder is a standard house feeder with space for birdseed and complete with small metal grates on the side for suet, both of which my dad replaces meticulously as needed. The chickadee, the cardinal, and the nuthatches are the most frequent visitors. The bluebird is a rarer sight to see, though the males are easy to spot once they make an appearance. Pesky squirrels and noisy blue jays make their daily visits as well, chasing off the smaller birds. Yet feeder’s most notorious visitor comes far less frequently than even the bluebird.
It was only a week ago the last time I saw a crow at the feeder. It swept in from nowhere, perching on the slanted top and sending two chickadees fluttering for the safety of the nearby trees. The large black bird ruffled its feathers and poked its head around the feeder for several seconds before going in for the suet, tearing off large chunks. It would pick its head up after each go at the suet, keeping a close, beady eye on my dog who was staring the bird down. I was reminded of years ago, when my dad would chase crows from the feeder. “They’ll scare off the other birds,” he would say, “The suet is for the woodpeckers.” I did not think much of it back then, but upon seeing the crow that day I began to question why he chased them off in the first place. Was the suet not meant to be eaten by hungry birds? And was the crow that I saw really less of a hungry bird than any of the other feeder visitors who are welcomed? Perhaps my dad had an affinity for the woodpeckers, or wanted the smaller birds to have more time at the feeder. I questioned both of these narratives as I began to look into things.
The American crow belongs to a family of birds called corvids, which also includes ravens, jays, and magpies. Most birds that fall under this category have black plumage, robust legs and talons, and slightly hooked beaks. Very few members of the corvid family have true bird songs – most of their voices consist of harsh notes, caws, and clicks. They are found all over the world and are typically omnivorous birds, adaptable and finding meals everywhere as opportunists; these meals can range anywhere from insects to bird eggs to carrion. The American Crow specifically has adapted to live in urban areas, making common appearances at the site of roadkill. All of these characteristics make it easy for the corvid family to fit into our narrative of “evil birds;” though crows and ravens specifically have a reputation ingrained into our culture that goes past their appearance.
The crow’s closeness with humans has made them popular in our culture, with their presence frequent in literature and folklore. Crows and ravens alike have a longstanding reputation of bringing bad omens, ill fate, and death. Their cultural history dates all the way back to 1000-year-old Norse mythology, which defines both black birds as common signs of evil due to their scavenging habits. In Northern European cultures, crows commonly signified war, death, and misfortune – a crow or raven’s appearance at the battlefield was believed to denote the defeat of an army. Celtic and Irish cultures believed that their goddesses would take the form of crows and gather at the site of a war, feeding on the flesh of fallen soldiers. In medieval times, crows were closely associated with witches and bad luck (Starovecka). And although North American and Canadian folklore deems ravens as the creators of the world, they paint this black bird as a trickster: the raven is believed to have made the world a more difficult place for humans to live, as our struggles bring the raven great amusement. Given its cultural history and the fact that a pack of crows is called a “murder,” it is no surprise that crows and ravens have become a fundamental for Halloween decorations.
The corvid family’s undeniable intelligence and charisma is perhaps what piques our fascination in crows. Crow researchers often wear “danger masks” when working closely with the birds, especially when experimenting with negative stimuli. This is because crows have the ability to recognize human faces, and have been known to attack and scold their wrongdoers years later. Researchers have also found that crows have the ability to pass on their grudges to others – crows that have had no direct human interaction before have been known to respond with scolding to the danger masks (Cornell). Though common in humans, this type of social learning is rare in the animal kingdom, as it requires a great degree of cognitive activity and communication. PET scans have revealed that there are parallels in social intelligence between crows and humans, specifically in areas relating to fear learning and emotional processing. These similarities suggest that humans and crows could be a case of convergent evolution, when different organisms independently evolve to have similar traits (Black). Similar studies have shown that crows can understand water displacement, solve multi-step puzzles, and fashion tools. Not surprisingly, the crow is widely considered to be one of the world’s most intelligent animals.
The culmination of the crow’s black plumage, hoarse caw, scavenging appetite, and extreme intelligence makes it easy for us to demonize the bird. We chase them from our feeders and make efforts to eradicate their populations, labeling them as bullies and bad luck. Yet we fail to recognize that we are more similar than we would like to think. The crow is one of the only birds that has the cognitive capacity to be considered cunning or manipulative, but they are also avid problem solvers and socially adept. Their intelligence and opportunistic nature rivals our own, sparking an intrigue that has rooted itself in cultures across several continents.
As I watched the crow take chunk after chunk of suet from the feeder, I held my dog back from chasing it off. Instead, I watched in fascination as the large bird ate its fill before taking off into the trees. Upon concluding my research, I felt that admiration was a more appropriate sentiment toward the crow than apprehension.
Black, Harvey. “Crows Show Off Their Social Skills.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 1 Sept. 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/crows-show-off-social-skills/.
Cornell, Heather N., et al. “Social Learning Spreads Knowledge about Dangerous Humans among American Crows.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 29 June 2011, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2011.0957.
Starovecka, Zuzana. “Ravens and Crows in Mythology, Folklore and Religion.” Perspectives, June 2010, perspectiveszine.webnode.sk/news/ravens-and-crows-in-mythology-folklore-and-religion/#:~:text=Ravens%20are%20perhaps%20the%20most,and%20religions%20of%20ancient%20cultures.&text=Also%2C%20seeing%20a%20raven%20or,the%20army%20would%20be%20defeated.
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