When people think of beautiful and interesting birds people usually think of sparrows, blue jays or mocking birds but I don't think anyone thinks of crows. When people think of crows they usually associate them with bad omens, or pests but I recently learned the beauty of crows.
On Tuesday, during my observations, I witness crows migrating, it was so shocking to see them migrating because I never knew crows migrated. It really made me think of what else do I not know about crows. I decided to do some research and found an article called "6 Terrifying Ways Crows Are Way Smarter Than You Think" and it says "On the other hand, every last one of them very likely remembers you as the weird human who kept staring at them. We know this, because researchers in Seattle performed an experiment with some crows around their college campus. They captured seven of the birds, tagged them, then let them go. And they did it all while wearing creepy skin masks...they were testing whether the crows could recognize human faces or not. It turns out they can. To a frightening degree: Whenever the scientists walked around campus with the masks on, the crows would "scold" and dive-bomb them... because along with the ability to recognize us as individuals, the researchers also learned that crows can hold a grudge. And pretty soon, it wasn't just the first seven crows reacting. Other birds, ones that hadn't even been captured in the first place, started dive-bombing the scientists as well...The test was repeated with multiple people wearing multiple masks, and without fail, the crows left the masked men who hadn't messed with them alone, but went murder-crazy on the mask that had been worn while messing with them...Researchers believe that the ability to recognize humans is an extension of the crows's ability to recognize each other, which helps them to warn one other about potential predators." I find it pretty remarkable that I can barely remember everyone's face at school but crows remember every face they've seen.
The article also says "One early test of tool use and intelligence in crows had researchers tying a piece of meat to a string, and then tying that string to a stick. To a one, the crows all stood on the stick, grabbed the string, dragged it up, held it with their foot, and repeated the action until they could reach the meat. We know people right now that would fail that test (some of them are us)...In the study, rooks were placed in a room containing a small pile of pebbles, then given a worm in a tube with water. And, because all good science is based on dickotry, they made sure the worm floated just out of the crow's reach.Two of the birds took two attempts to figure out the trick, and the other two got it on the first try. Here's the really mind-blowing part: The birds didn't just figure out a crude behavior through trial and error; they dropped in stones only until the water was high enough to reach the worm, and went for the larger pebbles too, understanding that they would displace more water." I find it so amazing that they have problem solving skills like people. The only difference is that people inquire them and crows already have them. They are like little genius.I didn't put all 6 ways of the article, I thought you could check it out and be interested like I was. Here's the link: http://www.cracked.com/article_19042_6-terrifying-ways-crows-are-way-smarter-than-you-think_p2.html
Actually taking the time and learning about crows made me think of other things I have misunderstood. Actually seeing something people called "pests" and realizing that they are beautiful creatures just with misunderstood intentions.Makes me feel like I need to reanalyze everything I seen as a pest and look deeper to find the true nature of it.
video shot by Myra Lara
Work Cited
Dietie, David."6 Terrifying Ways Crows Are Way Smarter Than You Think."Cracked.N.p. 28 Feb. 2011.Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
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