American Crow

A deep dive into the bird we all know and loathe

Chances are, that American Crow who shows up every now and then to caw-caw-caw incessantly in your backyard is smarter than your toddler. That is, if your toddler is less than five years old.

We humans do have a special fascination with the capabilities and intelligences of other species that we perceive may be similar to our own. Maybe this desire for a sense of kinship amongst our feathered (or furred) neighbors is born of a kind of species-loneliness we experience due to the widening gap between our daily lives and the untamed, natural world we come from. In any case, we seem to have found a satisfying bridge with this surprising- and common- bird.

Over the years, the Crow’s intelligence has been put to the test by probing humans in a myriad of different ways- and the results never disappoint. Researchers have discovered that crows are able to recognize us by our faces and associate each person with good or bad experiences. They are then likely to share that information about us with others in their social circle. In fact, “one researcher who had trapped crows was still recognized by crows that had never been trapped, nearly a mile away from the trapping site and five years later!” says our treasured David Sibley, author and illustrator of the Sibley Guides.

Some individuals have been observed using tools, and not rudimentary ones! They’ve been observed in captivity using cups to carry water over to a bowl of dry mash, or shape pieces of wood to perfectly fit into holes and crevices in search for food.

They are so smart, in fact, they’ve gotten rather lazy- crows worldwide have been observed dropping nuts in front of oncoming cars and immediately retrieving them to eat the nutrient rich insides, letting the machines do the time-consuming work of crushing shells.

This unexpected intelligence could be due to their bird brains- which are relatively big for their size. But their brains are also remarkably similar to primates (and humans), in that their forebrains- the part of the brain responsible for higher-level thought and processing- are especially large.

It is true that the American Crow has an inherent savvy that is remarkable. But taking it one step further, American Crows offer a lesson to us humans predisposed to a unique kind of hubris. It is a recent phenomenon in human history that we’ve developed the assumption that we are unparalleled in our capacities for complex and nuanced intelligence, emotions, and social hierarchies. Yet it is a rare occurrence that we set out to test the intelligence of a new species and come up disappointed and empty-handed. It seems we set the bar perpetually low.

Perhaps Indigenous folks were onto something with their understanding of homo sapiens as the “little brother” of Creation, with the most to learn. Looking at the American Crow perched in our hackberry, I’m met with a newfound reverence for my feathered neighbor who likely knows my backyard, and very likely my entire neighborhood, better than I do.

Photo credit: Andy Reynolds.

Sources: All About Birds – The Cornell Lab, Audubon Magazine, What It’s Like To  Be A Bird by David Allen Sibley

This piece was originally written for, and published on, the Travis County Audubon Bird of the Week blog.