Avian Einsteins
BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (ISBN: 978-0-7267-8755-5)
by
Budd Titlow
I feel really uncomfortable when I’m around crows. I see them looking down at me from their always lofty perches caw-caw-cawing while jerking their heads up and down. First one caws, then another responds, then a third, and so on. Before I know it a whole bevy of crows has me surrounded. They’re all talking back and forth to each other and, knowing their famous intellect, I’m quite sure they’re all making jokes and laughing at me.
Crow holding a purloined piece of organic beach debris. Opportunistic feeders, crows will—as the saying goes—eat anything they can get their beaks around! (Photo Copyright, Budd Titlow, NATUREGRAPHS)
American crows are commonly found throughout the North American continent. Crows are so widely distributed because they readily adapt to all habitat modifications. Whatever we do to the landscape, crows figure out how to deal with it and continue to prosper in the process. Because of this, you will see crows everywhere, from open woodlands to desolate beaches to farm fields, landfills, and town centers.
Being not the slightest bit picky about what they eat also contributes greatly to the crow’s success. They literally eat anything they can find and fit into their mouths, including seeds, mice, frogs, other birds, carrion and—most noticeably—garbage that humans cast aside. Crows are the fast-food specialists of the bird world, always patrolling roadsides and parking lots for discarded containers of french fries and half-eaten burgers. They also specialize in stealing food from other animals, ranging from river otters to sea ducks and even domestic pets.
Crows are not only the smartest birds, but they are among the smartest of all animals on the planet. They have approximately the same relative size brain as chimpanzees and humans. As Reverend Henry Ward Beecher observed, “If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.”
I once watched a crow spend ten minutes figuring out how to get a single red jellybean out of a box. It finally accomplished this by opening the end, then picking the box up in its beak and shaking the jellybean out. (Photo Copyright, Budd Titlow, NATUREGRAPHS)
Flocks of feeding crows are generally considered pests by farmers and other landowners. Especially during the winter months, crows will gather in immense roosting flocks consisting of up to two million birds. In some places, crow roosts have been increasing in size for more than one hundred years. Methods used to get rid of crows range from the basic scarecrow to widespread poisoning. In their defense, crows are often beneficial to agriculture since they consume insect pests that can ruin crops.
The 250 different calls of crows include a variety of distress calls that will bring aid from even other unrelated crows in an area. They can also mimic the sounds of other animals and even the human voice.
Holding a significant place in North American culture, crows were considered sacred and revered by many Native American tribes. Today our language is infused with many crow-related terms, such as “eating crow,” “as the crow flies,” “crow’s feet,” “crow’s nest,” “scarecrow,” and “crowing about” something. The family Corvidae—to which crows belong—is known for having the most complex social structure of any bird species. Because of this, you don’t want to get on their bad side. Remember, there’s a very good reason why a group of crows is called “a murder.”
Text excerpted from book: BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends, written by Budd Titlow and published by Lyons Press (an imprint of Globe Pequot Press).
Author’s bio: For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
This Birding Life 