Murder

The sky is covered with black specks flying in circles. Crows! Lots of them. Normally a large group of certain animals are named differently. A herd of cattle, a flock of sheep, but in this case, it is called a “murder of crows” or an “unkindness of crows”. Media, different cultures, and literature sometimes paint these creatures to symbolize death.

There’s been mixed reviews about crows. Some say they are creepy, facetious, and/or a bad omen to see them. While others find crows, beautiful, mysterious and clever. Crows are jet black colored birds that are seen almost everywhere, whether they are deep in the forest or in a busy metropolitan city. Crows are everywhere in the world except for Antarctica. They always seem to watch and observe human activities. It is not as common the other way around where people watch crows. The more information gathered about crows, the more reasons to be intrigued. Humans, specifically zoologists and biologists, have only begun to understand crows, their behaviors and their fascinating abilities.

Crows, in the Corvidae family, are such amazing creatures. Examples of other birds in the Corvidae family include: rooks, ravens, magpies and jackdaws . Crows are a lot smarter than one would think. As a matter of fact, the brain/body ratio is bigger than humans. So to call someone “birdbrain” is erroneous or may actually be a compliment. Crows are able to create tools for a purpose. For example, crows had been observed to snap off specific branches to create different length hooks to get the worm. Amongst birds, crows had been known to make tools. They have also been creative and intelligent enough to adapt in a city to scavenge for food. Another example, crows were observed to pick different industrial materials, such as optic fibers, wires, and electric wires, to build their nests or find food to provide for their family. These are prime examples of upcycling at it’s finest.

Similar to some human dynamics, crows tend to find one partner and will likely spend their entire lifetime with their partner after mating. Adult crows would care for their young and once the younger crows become teenagers, they would have already been trained to help care for newborn siblings. They treat crows in the group as their core family. Meanwhile, when a crow passes away, groups of crows would exhibit funeral-like clusters and quietly mourn. This behavior is much like human behavior to one that has passed. Researchers are still unclear, but suspect that this is a way where crows communicate that there is danger.

Other fascinating behaviors is that crows can remember faces and is able to pass this information down to the next few generations. In 2006, John Marzluff (Professor of Wildlife Science) and his team of researchers at University of Washington did an experiment where they had worn different theatrical masks. Some notable masks include Dick Cheney (neutral mask) and another of a caveman (threatening). The person who wore a caveman mask had captured and release the crow. Afterwards, the crow shared this information with it’s group and each time a person would walk past the quarry in a caveman mask, crows would scold, warn, and squawk in a defensive manner. Other people reported different accounts of having to stay away from a certain area once they had offended a crow. Some would even dive bomb as a rebuttal months to years afterward.

In terms of other behaviorism patterns, some crows that live in the city are able to learn to read traffic lights. Crows adapt and acquire survival skills in the city or in modern day. Given that in a busy city, the roads are often filled with moving vehicles. Crows have learned to drop different nuts at a certain height based on weight to crack the shells while flying in air. If the crow drops their food in the middle of the street, Crows learned how to look at the stop lights before diving into the crosswalk to retrieve their nuts.

Another fun fact is that crows have vices too. Crows would get drunk or be in a euphoric state after rubbing their bodies on ants. Crows allow ants to freely roam on their body especially during feather molting seasons to soothe their skin. This behavior is called “anting”, the Formic acid chemicals from the ants wards off feathers destroying microorganisms and bacteria. It is unclear whether crows really get drunk from formic acid, but birdwatchers rumored that crows do seem to find pleasure in this activity.

Now that these uncommon knowledge about crows are shared, perhaps people’s perception of crows will change. Crows are not ordinary birds. With new found respect for these magnificent creatures, maybe crows are a little less scary now. These exciting fascination can foster more interest on how crows are integrated into our society and certainly recognize that we have much more to learn about them.