At least crows do not (yet) dig up stuff in my garden and eat the paint off my porch, like neighborhood squirrels do. And yet there are people who adore and feed squirrels. It does not compute.
Crows also do not nest above the porch as barn swallows do, harassing and swooping down around us while they’re raising their young. That reminds me to spread some more bird “tanglefoot” around potential porch nesting sites. These critters have an entire barn to nest in unmolested.
OhI don’t know… black ones?
I guess I’ll have to look up what the crow species are.
I definitely do not adore crows. There is a reason those strawmen that we stick out in fields are called “scarecrows”. Crows destroy crops. They can ruin your lawn and your gardens. They are messy and noisy. They will sometimes pick apart the shingles on your roof and can cause other damage to buildings. There are a lot of reasons not to like crows.
But I do respect crows. They are smart little buggers, you have to give them that. They use tools. They can make multi-stage plans. They can even recognize individual human faces. Piss one off, and it will remember you for the rest of its life, and it will hold a grudge.
It’s uncanny how, living here just south of San Francisco, the crows will swarm a few times a year. But don’t ask me when that is. I haven’t paid attention but perhaps I should. But when they swarm there’ll be a big murder of them flying in circles above my neighborhood, cawing loudly. They’ll land in the trees and sit there for a while.
I’m not a fan of them but maybe I’ll learn more about them and come to appreciate them.
Maybe.
The rest of the time they are up north, in Bodega Bay, practicing for the big day.
That would be interesting, to be up in Bodega Bay when the crows are swarming.
Maybe.
Corvids are fun to interact with. We had crows and scrub jays in Portland. The jays were very bold and trusting once they realized I intended no harm to them. They would come right up and grab a peanut while I stood there. The crows were more cautious. I read that corvids can remember a huge number of hiding places for food stashes; over 100, IIRC. They also spy on squirrels and other birds to see where they’re stashing food.
We had ravens and magpies in Alaska, as well as Steller’s jays and camp robbers (Canada jay). The ravens would engage in all kinds of play, from sliding down snowy roofs to riding warm air updrafts next to buildings. The camp robbers live up to their name by stealing your picnic food.
Corvids are really good at face recognition, also. Fish and Game folks would remove eggs from nests near my wife’s building so that the birds wouldn’t roost there (they attacked pedestrians when nesting). One warden tried wearing a fake beard, as the magpies would attack him as soon as he got out of his truck, but they recognized him anyway.
If you saw a bunch of black covids they were probably crows. Ravens travel in pairs of two, not flocks or other groups. If you see a solitary raven, look around, the other one is watching you from some vantage point. They work together like this. One acting as sentinel while the other is more exposed, then they move together.
There are always two ravens.
Personally, I admire Crows — somewhat — and Ravens — more, especially since they’re significant in Pacific Northwest mythology — but the corvids I find most appealing are Magpies. Which, unfortunately, we don’t have hereabouts (the link is to the species that comes closest). For one thing, I find them more attractive; for another, they’re quite comfortable around humans while remaining essentially wild.
I recall sitting in the outside terrace of a restaurant in Montana and having one watch me intently just on the other side of the fence (not aggressively, just obviously focused). The waitress said there were several who had learned that if they stay beyond the fence they might get fed, but if they came inside they would get chased. This one earned a couple of fries for its trouble.
ETA: Second @Chefguy’s comments about scrub jays. They’ve just started showing up 'round here in the past few years, and they are beautiful and interesting birds.
Almost always. They don’t partner up for a couple years, so if you see a solo one, it’s usually a young 'un. I tried for awhile to tame a young, unattached male, until I read more about taming them: Not a good idea. They become petulant and demanding when they come to identify you as “their” human. I left off with my efforts, as I don’t have endless time to devote to a childish raven.
Agree it can be fun to watch them work in pairs. Other times, not so much. I raised a smaller breed of pig for awhile, and there was no way to stop them snatching piglets when a sow had farrowed. One raven would distract the momma pig while the other would swoop in and snatch the helpless piglet (they were about the size of pop cans). I gave up breeding because I couldn’t protect them.
I’ve lived with ravens for nearly 20 years. Their habitat is dense forestry, and that’s where I live. As previously described, they can be very destructive and they are just plain smart. I could tell dozens of stories. I have grudging admiration for them and do my best to coexist with them. Apparently I’ve avoided becoming an enemy, because I’ve never been attacked.
I trained a couple of pairs that like to nest near the house to stay out of the area behind my house where the hot tub lives. They destroyed a hot tub cover one year for nesting material – a brand new cover, naturally – so I scared them away from that area. They quickly figured out that behind-the-house was not ok and in-front-of-the-house meant occasional treats. My newest hot tub cover is unmolested and tranquility now reigns.
At certain times of the year, they like to keep track of where I am in the house. The house is all windows, so they find places to watch me everywhere. I wonder why they care. I guess it’s the same on both sides of the equation: It’s fun to watch each other’s behaviors.
Once work-from-home began, I started making friends with my local scrub jays and crows. I’ve been pretty successful with the jays.
The boldest jay, the one I call Jimmy, will not only land on me and eat from my hand, but will also come inside and help himself. If I have snacks on my desk, he’ll strut around making little quacking noises until he’s found what he wants. He’s gotten himself stuck inside the peanut bag a few times. On warmer days with the windows open, he’ll take shortcuts through my house instead of over or around.
The crows are a little more standoffish. The boldest of the crows will come to me to get peanuts, but I have to put them down and take a step back. Both the jays and crows have learned to peck at the window my desk faces to demand service.
Bird Tax:
What a pretty birb.
Pretty cool. I didn’t want our jays to get too comfortable with human contact, so I stopped short of trying to hand-feed them.
Ha. I didn’t really try for this, he’s just that persistent. He started landing on me to get the food from me before the other birds. I think he started coming into the house because he saw where the peanut bag was. It decided to cut out the middleman.
People worry about feeding wild birds - will they starve if I go away on vacation? Studies have shown that birds are sufficiently adaptable and never become dependent on you, and the scientific consensus is that if you like having them around, it is beneficial to them to feed them even if it’s irregular.
Hey, this is the perfect thread to show off my cellphone case!
I like Crows and Ravens, mostly for reasons dealing with my fondness for mythology and TT-RPGS. Many a time I’ve had a raven familiar, clipped to be able to speak, and while always useful, they absolutely will inherent a certain disrespectful attitude from their IRL counterparts.
As for IRL birds, they are loud, noisy, and make their feelings known. Proper Americans one might say! But I can see the hate they engender from those working hard on various agricultural bodies: farms, ranches and gardens are absolutely not safe from the smart little buggers.
Although I don’t have any hate for the birds, I do admit that the endless battle against them has given us one of my favorite TV commercials of all time…
Thanks for this! It’s good to know I’m not going to disrupt their natural lives. I have enough on my hands keeping the cats and the people nourished properly without worrying about the birds.
We don’t get a very wide variety of birds here, being in a largish city in the middle of mountain desert. My mother-in-law was a birdwatcher and she lived out in the middle of nowhere, so she got piñon jays and ravens along with a bunch of other native birds. I’m lucky to see anything but sparrows, pigeons, and robins must of the time, although once I started paying attention after inheriting MIL’s bird books, I noticed we have a few more interesting and native birds around.
A book I recommend: Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich.
I really miss the scrub jays, not been out that way in a long while. They were in public spaces like campgrounds or parks where people would go for day picnics. They would land right on your table like they were old friends dropping in.
Many years ago, I started buying bulk peanuts in the shell with the idea of tossing them to grey squirrels when I was out in the yard. Usually, they would take the peanut and leave to wherever they kept their stash, but if they got a split or broken peanut they would immediately bury it in the yard and come back for a new peanut.
It took the blue jays about two days to figure this out, so they would watch the squirrels bury the peanut then pop down and dig it up. So I started lobbing peanuts towards them when I saw them. Within a couple of days, if I wasn’t quick enough, I would get a blue jay swoop down within a couple feet of me while doing the classic blue jay scream. Man they learn fast.
Right now we have a family of three ravens. Easily picked up on the peanut feeding. Unfortunately, my dog sees them as something that’s a good size to play with. The only birds she ever pays attention to.