Crows Gone Wild! What are they doing?

[Suicide]

should i have intervened and broken it up? or is it crows will be crows

[Measure_for_Measure]

Shoulda recorded it.

[Magiver]

@Suicide

should i have intervened and broken it up? or is it crows will be crows

crows will remember you and hound you forever if you mess with them.

[Ambivalid]

@Suicide

i’ve also heard that if a crow gets killed, no other crow in his flock who witnessed the killing will ever let themselves be killed the same way

Are you 10?

[Colibri]

@Ambivalid

Are you 10?

Moderator Note

Let’s not insult other posters in this forum. No warning issued.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[Senegoid]

“Jonathan Livingston Crow, stand to center for shame!”

[Suicide]

fact: a bunch of crows are in an area, one gets shot by a hunter, none of the rest of the crows will ever return to that area…

[bob_2]

@Suicide

fact: a bunch of crows are in an area, one gets shot by a hunter, none of the rest of the crows will ever return to that area…

I would love to see a cite for that.

As a teenager I went crow shooting - this was not sport, but culling. We stood under a tree where they were nesting and just blasted away. We didn’t even bother to pick up the carcases. The following year the crows would be back.

[kayaker]

@racepug

I work at a university that has a world-renowned experts on crows working at it. I’ve met him a few times - he sometimes takes the same bus home that I do.

:dubious: A world-renowned crow expert takes the bus? I’m picturing him tooling around in a chauffeur driven crow mobile. Some sorta ecology minded affectation, this bus thing?

:dubious:

[lieu]

@Yllaria

Oh, in the issue, one character (Abel) claimed to know what the crows were doing. The crow in the center was telling a story. The rest were critics.

This cracked me up.

@Reply

Ravens (closely related to crows, both members of genus corvus) have been known to mob other ravens to censure them for bad behavior – stealing food, territorial intrusions, etc. There is a corvid mob justice system that escalates punishments – first verbal warnings, then gentle peckings, and eventually the deliberate group execution of the criminal if that individual continues to do things the group doesn’t like.

In a similar situation (but probably not what you saw) juveniles also gang up on adults to chase them out of their feeding area, presumably because individual juveniles can’t outcompete individual adults.

Source: Book called “Mind of the Raven”

Thanks, Reply, this sounds perfectly feasable. I’m also going to leave a call out to our resident crow expert, brachyrhynchos, just in case she happens to check in and can offer any additional comment.

[John_Mace]

@Suicide

i’ve also heard that if a crow gets killed, no other crow in his flock who witnessed the killing will ever let themselves be killed the same way

@Suicide

fact: a bunch of crows are in an area, one gets shot by a hunter, none of the rest of the crows will ever return to that area…

Not sure if you’re second post is correct (let’s see a cite for it), but it’s NOT the same thing as what you originally posted. I think you’re new around here, so maybe you’re not aware that this forum is for posting factual information. You might want to look for a reputable cite for things you’ve “heard” before posting. Much of what we all “know” is not correct.

[Dewey_Finn]

@Accidental_Martyr

From The American Society of Crows and Ravens:

http://www.ascaronline.org/crowfaq.htm

There’s an “American Society of Crows and Ravens”? Who knew? Clearly not me.

[Fenris]

Because the first crow unfriended the others on Facebook.

[kayaker]

@Ambivalid

Are you 10?

@Colibri

Moderator Note

Let’s not insult other posters in this forum. No warning issued.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

I was curious also, no insult intended. Per the registration agreement:

Minimum age for registration on the SDMB is 13 years.

[PlainJain]

I’m pretty sure they were teasing the one in the middle about it’s hairy legs.

[Malacandra]

@Suicide

i’ve also heard that if a crow gets killed, no other crow in his flock who witnessed the killing will ever let themselves be killed the same way

No, you’re thinking of the Borg.

[Washoe]

@bob_2

We stood under a tree where they were nesting and just blasted away. We didn’t even bother to pick up the carcases. The following year the crows would be back.

My next-door neighbor used to do exactly the same thing. The damn crows would be back the next day. I don’t think they’re quite as smart as everybody makes them out to be.

[brachyrhynchos]

@racepug

I work at a university that has a world-renowned experts on crows working at it. I’ve met him a few times - he sometimes takes the same bus home that I do. Now, I’m not the expert that he is but I know he’s referred in books of his about crows to “crow assassinations.” I wonder if that is what you were witness to.

Marzluff?

Crows can be pretty territorial about things, expecially at this time of year when kids are coming off of nests. It’s possible they were beating up an intruder, but that’s entirely speculation on my part.

[carnivorousplant]

@carnut

I’ve seen crows mob a young bald eagle and a peregrine falcon, but never another crow. What a dastardly gang!

When thieving magpies fall out.

[kayaker]

@brachyrhynchos

Marzluff?

Aboard public transportation? It is to laugh.