I, for one, welcome our new corvidae overlords

Crow is all that Donald Trump should ever have to eat.

They're taking over. There is a huge flock of crows in my area that swarm around sunset. I think I'm in THE BIRDS.

A while back, a bunch of us were having a discussion about phobias, and the subject of crows happened to come up. Below is essentially a copy/paste of my contribution to the discussion. And, yes, crows are indeed quite brilliant.

We have a family of crows living in a wooded area, across the field close to our house. Over the years, they've become almost friendly, and we feed them. Every morning, the entire family arrives and they perch in trees, on our roof, and the railing of the back step, waiting for the goodies to be tossed out. We make sure that the goodies are nutritious, and their favorite treat is peanuts in the shell.

There is one that we are sure is the patriarch, both from his size and the way he interacts with the other crows. We call him Papa Crow, and he has a close attachment to my partner, who stands beside the crow when he's on the railing and talks to him. Papa Crow likes to play tricks on my partner, such as flying low toward him and then just before a possible collision, the crow soars over his head.

Every year, there are two to three babies produced, and as soon as they're fledged, they're brought over to show them off. A couple of years ago, they had a hatch of two, and they would leave the two young crows in our yard when they were off doing crow things. The two would sit on the top of the lawn swing, and hop about.

One of the crows can say "hello." I knew that crows could be taught to talk, but they must have simply picked this up from us. Somebody told me that they had heard other crows saying hello as well, so it may be a common thing.

Last year my partner bought them some special treats which they'd never had before. To show their appreciation, two of them serenaded my partner very early in the morning, while he was still in bed. (I slept through the whole thing. I could sleep through a bombing raid, so I didn't actually hear it.) They sat on a bush outside the window. One would say, "Keh keh keh keh keh keh keh keh" and immediately the second one would make a sound like "Cronk, cronk" This was repeated over and over and over, many many times. It was quite rhythmic, apparently. Strangely, my partner did not appreciate it.

On the other side of the field there's a wooded area, but it's not thickly wooded, so we can see quite easily what they do over there. One day, they found a dead sharp-shinned hawk. (We were watching with binoculars.) They gathered around it, peering down at it like a CSI team. When they were certain it was dead, they began to eat it. Some weeks later, the two youngest crows of that year's hatch, found the corpse which by now was just a dried out old piece of skin and feathers. They were playing with it, and so help me, they seemed to be play acting, like children. One would hold the corpse up in front of it, as if to say, "Fear me! I'm a fierce hawk." The other would scrunch down in front of the "hawk" as if it were afraid.

We also have a crow roost in the woods back of our house, and we watch them arriving from areas nearby. When everyone is gathered, they start"chatting" and cackling as if they were having conversations. One crow will give quite a lengthy "speech" and when he finishes, the other crows will all make a racket, as if in approval. We wonder if he's the stand up comedian of the flock.

Unfortunately they are susceptible to West Nile virus. So are blue jays, who are also corvids. It’s because they have large brain pans.

Thank you, R3.

Are we talking about all crows, or just a specific species? Where I live there are mainly American crows, but an almost identical species, fish crows, lives along the shore (I wouldn't be able to tell the difference).

They are very smart and remember and seem to have problem solving skills.

The Urban/Suburban Magpie population has trebled in the UK, they survive very well in Cities.

Compared to other Corvids they are vicious, we frequently find dead chicks from nests raided by them in the garden.

R6 in my case, these would be American crows.

Pfft!

We have Gray Jays or Canada Jays here. They are another corvid. They are fairly easily tamed to the point where they will land on your hand to get a treat. I've hand fed this one many times. One time I was feeding him and a man and his son came along. I gave the boy a peanut and told him to hold out his hand. The jay came right in and landed on his hand taking the peanut. That made that little boys day, that's for sure.

R3 Love your post.

I've also heard that they will bring gifts to those who regularly feed them.

They'll drop pebbles, sticks and bright things they can find like bottle caps, pieces of foil.

R12 We've received gifts, such as a key, attractive pebbles, and small shells from the shore close by.

I read that they remember faces and if you are mean to them they will remember you. And keep attacking you. You should always be nice to them. I love crows.

R11, I've always wanted to see gray jays and feed them. Do you recommend a good place and time of year?

Fucking aviary bullies. They scare off much nicer birds in my wooded rental cottage in upstate NY. I hate them.

R14 I remember reading somewhere about a naturalist whose job it was to test the blood of unfledged young crows in a certain area, looking for signs of disease. Apparently the crows grew to recognize his van, and they would mob him, chasing the van for a considerable distance.

Oddly, R16, the crows and songbirds peacefully coexist in my area. The trees can be filled with various songbirds while the crows do their crow things, and they ignore one another.

They gang up on the red-tailed hawks in my neighborhood. It's not unusual to see a group of them chasing them out.

R19, I've seen them do this as well. In fact a few weeks ago a goshawk arrived in the area, quite a large one, and there was an all-day fuss about its presence. It started about 8 in the morning and went on till about 3 in the afternoon, steady cawing and shrieking. It was sitting in a tree across our field, and in spite of being mobbed loudly and with great determination, refused to leave until it was good and ready.

Blessed is the Morrigan!

R20, it's relatively. Apparently it's called hawk-mobbing (video below). Crows recognize that hawks are a bird of prey and band together to defend their territory.

If we had prehensile thumbs we would rule the world.

I wish the crows would come over to my area and save us from the turkey buzzards. .

Crows should team up with octopi (another highly intelligent creature) and wrest control of the earth from humans.

The very idea is unimaginable, R25. We wouldn’t stand a chance!

I crow, you crow, we all crow for a big glass of wine.

Lots of birds mob hawks. During nesting season grackles, r g blackbirds & blue jays will get together and mob hawks (and crows) in my neighborhood. Crows are nest thieves and will steal eggs & chicks from other birds nests. Blue jays, too. Robins will not let blue jays anywhere near their nests.

Blue jays hang around feeders more than crows, so they are the main “bird alarms.” They send up the alarm for hawks, owls, cats, dogs, snakes & rats. They don’t seem to mind squirrels. Though the jays rob nests and kill fledglings during nesting/fledgling season, they are very important year-round to the other birds, alerting them to danger.

Robins are very observant of threats, too. Listen to robins during nesting season and you’ll learn their alarm call. Once you know it, you’ll be regularly alerted to any strange animals in your yard. We have some year-round robins, so even in winter I’ll hear their alarm calls and go chase a neighborhood cat out of it’s hiding place in my hedges.

We’ve got tons of grackles & r g blackbirds here. They come back from migration in February, the first birds to arrive. During nesting season, it can sound like a Halloween movie when they spot a crow or hawk. I’ve seen 50 or 60 of them take off and direct an attack at a crow or hawk in a tree until it gives up & flies away. Only one grackle or RWBB needs to sound the alarm & they’ll come flying in from all over to chase the big birds. But as soon as they finish nesting, they stop looking for predators and a hawk can sit in a tree in my front yard watching tge bird feeder and the grackles & RWBBs are like “Eh.”

Driving along highways in summer you’ll often see small birds up in the air chasing crows, dive bombing them. Often the crow has an egg or a baby in its claws

Gifts from crows

Are ravens as smart as crows?

Even smarter.

Plus a flock of crows is called a Murder, sounds badass!

Have you seen Kristen Schaal's guest appearance on the television show What We Do In The Shadows? "We sent ten thousand ravens!" "I'm shocked and appalled you didn't raven us back!"

I used to live in an especially bad neighborhood, where arrests were routinely made. A few crows seemed to always be present in the trees at one particularly active street corner, and would caw in a way that sounded suspiciously like laughter whenever an arrest was going down. I've been a crow enthusiast ever since.

Blimey!

When I was a kid I had crows as pets. They really are smart birds. My crow would fly down to the school bus stop and wait on the street sign till I got on the bus then fly home. We’d ride our bikes down the street and the crow would fly after us and land on our shoulders. The negative for the crow was he couldn’t distinguish between good and bad humans. To it every human was a good human. One day my crow went missing and I thought the worst. About two weeks later I hear this cawing outside and it was my crow. Someone had caught it, clipped its wings and it had walked home. It was so happy to see me that it was like a dog who hasn’t seen its owner for a long time. It wasn’t a ‘house’ crow it stayed outside. They had wonderful personalities. Too bad they’re considered pests.

I love these birds. Where I live there are many Ravens. They are amazing looking and you can hear them up in the palm trees just hanging out. I started feeding one at work, he is to the point where he lands on a roof edge about 25 feet from me and watches as I put pieces of cookie or some nuts on the ground for him. Hopefully I can gain his trust and he gets closer.

Best thread ever.

I love crows

Crows, octopi, and *raccoons* should team up, R25

R40, not a bad team! They've got the air, land, and water covered for their blitzkrieg.

Lifespan of a crow: 20 years.

Lifespan of a raccoon: 3 years.

Lifespan of an octopus: 2 years.

I don't think any of them will be supplanting us any time soon.

R42, I had no idea raccoons had such short lifespans!

R42 large parrots (i.e., African greys, cockatoos, macaws, etc.) in captivity have lifespans comparable to humans, and are also super intelligent

My cousin had crows outside his house. The crows would harass the songbirds, so my cousin would shoot the crows. Eventually the smaller birds would make a fuss when a crow was nearby, like they were calling for my cousin to get his rifle. The songbirds wouldn't even flinch when he fired the gun and a dead crow fell from the tree. It was a little disturbing how they were conspiring with a human to kill the crows.

I saw a Bald Eagle flying erratically. It was being chased by a much smaller bird about the size of a sparrow. A second eagle was sitting on a power pole watching its mate trying to escape.

I was on my patio when I heard dozens of birds squawking. A minute later, a blue jay flew into my tree followed by dozens of wrens or chickadees. They continued to chase it from tree to tree until they were so far away I could no longer hear them.

When I was six years old, I was snatched out of my backyard by a Thunderbird. It flew about one hundred feet before it dropped me across the street into the neighbor's yard.

I, too, have seen little birds mobbing a big bird, crow or hawk. But in my own little backyard I see mourning doves chasing each other out of the food zone under the feeder. Why do they sometimes act so uncharitably, yet other times seven or eight of them will forage peaceably, alongside juncos, house sparrows, cardinals, etc.?

I once saw a turkey vulture chased away from the bell tower on a college campus by the peregrine falcon who lived there. The vulture simply reversed its disingenuous circles upon the falcon's angry yapping and wafted away. A second later a disembodied wing twirled downwards from the tower, obviously part of what had so allured the vulture by its smell. Not sure what species the victim was.

They're racist.

There's 3 huge trees outside my 3d floor flat, where the crows hang out on a regular basis. Apparently, once a month about 40 of them show up for their neighborhood meeting. Lots of discussion, and you can see and hear one or two (HOA Board members?) going on and on while the others listen quietly. I walk to work (at a hotel) and say hello to the crows hanging out on the block every day; they never get skittish or fly away when I talk to them. It's like "okay, have a good day, catch you later" and they just keep on talking amongst themselves or checking out trash on the sidewalk. Love them!

We had a pet bluejay who could say "help", "get down" and my mother's name. My uncle had a pet crow who would repeatedly say "we are dead".

I don't like birds in general; however, I don't mind crows. I am a runner and have been attacked by various songbirds over the years--evil little creatures. Crows are usually picking off roadkill whenever I encounter them. As I pass, they simply fly up on a telephone line or tree and come back down after I have cleared the area--unlike songbirds that swoop down and hoover over me with their talons as I pass an area they don't like. Crows have a bad reputation, but I have never had an issue with them.

R50 My partner and I had a run-in with a pair of chickadees a couple of years ago. Those things are militant! We were clearing a portion of our yard, which meant that we had to cut down a large number of dead wild plum trees. The two chickadees scolded us angrily from the limb of a tree, and when we were finally ready to call it quits for the day. they followed us to the house, then flew between us. I practically felt the wings touch my face. This was their way of threatening us apparently.

Did someone mention the crows?

What about THE crow?

We should always remember that birds are the last remaining branch of the dinosaur family tree. So, when you watch Jurassic Park and think some of the dinosaurs appear to be too intelligent, think again. You can imagine many of their behaviors based on how birds behave. And some birds are very smart indeed.

Mockingbirds would chase my cats through the yard when I was a kid and now I see them routinely chasing hawks off my property. They are little bad asses.

I love crows! I had a nest of them in an oak last year. They raised their babies and then moved on, I guess. I miss them. They were so conversational and would talk back to me. The oak had died the year before because of a drought, so maybe they knew it wasn’t safe.

Last spring a family of chickadees moved into the bluebird house I got as a gift. I saw a new baby hopping around on the ground next to the birdhouse and sat on the back porch to watch it. I was almost immediately told off by the mother and father. They perched right next to the porch and wouldn’t shut up. I finally got the message and went inside. They weren’t intimidated by me at all.

Birds chase you because their nests are nearby and they are protecting their young. They’re not “nasty little things.” Humans are predators of birds and humans cut down trees and bushes where birds have their nests, so it’s a protective instinct. Stay away from the nest area and they’ll leave you alone.

R53 wow, that’s a right-click and save right there.

I grew up with the sequels. WICKED PRAYER is my shameful secret favorite; I’m aware that it’s terrible offensive juvenile nonsense with a cast of horrible people, but I just find it fascinating & watchable all the same. And David Boreanaz is really hot in it.

My city has a crow "infestation" apparently and a downtown business owners association hired a couple of falconers to chase them off. Droppings were becoming an issue.

The crows in my neighborhood drop whatever nuts they find on the streets and hang out on wires waiting for cars to run over them. If I'm out on a walk, I'll stomp them.

[quote] They are very smart and remember and seem to have problem solving skills.

We also know when to hyphenate.

Usually the crow symbolises the giant-king & marauder Brân Bendigeidfran (‘Blessed Crow’), the son of Penarddun & Llŷr in the Brythonic faith, but recently my research and this thread has led me to delve and discover another forgotten deity in the same pantheon represented by the same dark lovely birds. His story is beautiful.

[quote] Morfran/Afagddu is still clearly despised. Afagddu’s name is derived from y faggdu, ‘a night of unordinary darkness’. In Brythonic Welsh his name actually means ‘Great Crow’, or ‘Sea Raven’ which may be another name for a cormorant. In Rhonabwy’s Dream, Owain’s warband, who are described as ravens, not only kill Arthur’s army but carry off their heads, eyes, ears, and arms. The Papil Stone depicts two bird-headed men bearing a human head between their long beaks, which make them look as much like cormorants as carrion birds. The reference to him having ‘stag’s hair’ connects him with other warriors who became wyllt ‘mad’ or ‘wild’ in battle and took the forms of wild animals. In The Gododdin combatants are described as ‘bull of an army’, ‘wolf in fury’, ‘terrible bear’ and ‘celebrated stag’. He shares a kinship with the shapeshifters who Arthur captured and forced to join his hunt for Twrch Trwyth ‘King of Boars’. These include Rhymi who took ‘the form of a she-wolf’ and gwyllon such as Cynedyr Wyllt who was ‘nine times wilder than the wildest beast’. Whether Afagddu fought on Arthur’s side freely or was coerced remains uncertain. Whatever the case his description suggests he became wyllt and battled in a stag-like guise.

[quote] The comparison of Morfran to an ‘attendant demon’ is evocative of the ‘devils of Annwn’ led by Gwyn ap Nudd, a pagan god, who gathers the souls of the dead from the battlefield. Gwyn’s epithet is ‘Bull of Battle’ and he has ‘horns on his head’. His host, members of his ‘Wild Hunt’, are part animal. The evocation of attendant demons and angels gathering souls from the battlefield presents us with a vivid depiction of the conflict between paganism and Christianity. Morfran is placed on the side of the Lord of the Wild Hunt and the Pursuer of Souls in Gwyn ap Nudd. References to corpse-eating birds are prevalent throughout medieval Welsh literature. Gwenddolau owns two birds: ‘two corpses of the Cymry they ate for dinner, and two for their supper’. The Eagle of Pengwern is ‘greedy for the flesh of Cynddylan’. Gwyn’s ravens ‘croak over gore’. The evidence suggests Afagddu not only partook in the slaughter at numerous battles but may also have joined the birds who feasted on the corpses of the dead. His name became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Driven over the edge by losing the awen he lost himself in war and surrendered to utter darkness. What happened to him after he was seen at Camlan amongst the battlefield demons remains unknown. If, as I have surmised, he killed other men and ate their flesh, we can guess he descended traumatised into a long dark night.

[quote] Is it possible Afagddu also made a recovery and became a poet and prophet? Lines from ‘The Hostile Confederacy’, from The Book of Taliesin, suggest he did. ‘Until death it shall be obscure/Affagdu’s declamation: skilfully he brought forth speech in metre.’ Here we find references to the obscurity of his prophetic speech and to his mastery of poetic metre. Afagddu has become a poet-prophet. How he won his awen and became filled with the spirit of prophecy remains obscure as his declamation. Whereas Myrddin/Merlin of Arthurian lore found healing in the light of the forests of Celyddon, Afagddu found it in the darkest of places. Afagddu’s awen arises from nights of darkness and poisoning and death in which he sees his own nature reflected. They have their own poetry, which seems ugly to an Arthurian eye, but less so from an Annuvian perspective that embraces what our society derides as hideous as poetic and prophetic.

At Mount Baker:

You stomp birds on walks, R58? You're fucking psycho.

My parents have a large yard with tons of critters coming and going. This past summer they bought an airsoft rifle to shoot at a murder that had taken up residence, as they were killing bluejays and cardinals. I was livid (at the ersatz gun). There is a definite corvid anti-bias... would they shoot at the two hawks (which also eat songbirds)? Probably not.

I love crows! I've tried to feed them, to no avail. At times they've used our birdbath to soak dried pizza slices or leave bits of carcasses-- tiny skills and meaty bits. Any tips on how to feed them? And what to feed them?

Sorry to change the subject a bit, but I once had an eagle drop multiple fish near me as a gift I think...or was trying to kill me with the. I was sunning on a rock on a lake in northern Minnesota, and this eagle flew a few feet over my head and dropped a fish as my feet. It was still alive so I threw it in the water. The eagle did it four more times! I kep throwing them back in the water. Maybe the eagle thought I was a moron who didn’t know how to eat fish. He gave up after a couple hours. It was amazing.

By any chance are you Feri, R60?

They'd definitely do a better job of running the world than humans. I hope they remember how I've fed them when they take over and are kind to me.

Ever lover of crows should have this volume of poetry on their nightstand.

^^^ Every, not ever.

But I am an ever-lovin’ lover of crows.

As to what they eat, I once read that they like fruit, so I used to cut up pears and leave them out in the yard, but I had no takers.

I dream of a world where we put out environmentally friendly yarn dyed in the current Pantone color.

“So basic. Even her crows use 2015’s nest. “

Gods, no R66. I didn’t even know who or what this group were until I read your post, and after a quick scan of the Wiki I can say my faith practise has nothing in common with theirs.

Not to derail OP’s fine thread, but since you ask: I do not identify as Wiccan, Witch or Druid at all (frankly I find the monikers distasteful & absurd for anyone), neither do I acknowledge people who do as knostics. I operate as a Brythonic Reconstructionist Polytheist (with a side of Technopaganry), interested in radical Earth-centred politics and a Bardic path over ‘magick’ or divination.

What is more I certainly do not mix closed spiritual practises from other cultures in with my own, as The Feri seem blithely to do. I abhor the fairly disgusting fascist notion of ‘bloodlines’ in the Wiccan faith, but do acknowledge that one is best sticking to the culture they were raised in (I have Welsh grandparents and grew up in Wales, though I am not a fluent native speaker). I am not part of any organised group, either, an idea which to me always seemed antithetical to Pagan ethos & politic. I chose to construct an individualistic practise for myself using only historical texts and my own intuition, in the privacy of my home.

I imagine you thought of the initiates Gywdion Pendderwen & Caradoc ap Cador when reading my post, because I mention Brython deities, tales & texts. There’s no connection there whatsoever, and I came to the Brython Pantheon on my own.

Interesting, R60, I was just curious...

What a delightfully messed-up word "technopaganry" is. A veritable chimæra, with a Greek head, a Latin body, and a truncated Old French tail. It makes "heterosexual" look like a try-hard.

R62, he meant he'll stomp on the nuts.

Ah ok, thanks for clarifying!

I DESPISE THEM!