Put your knowledge to the test! Do you know these cool and creepy facts about crows?
1. Crows are crazy smart
They belong to the corvid family which are all known for remarkable intelligence. Crow intelligence is similar to human children and even apes.
Some theories suggest their brain-to-body ratio is the cause. Other theories explain their complex social dynamics and need to adapt for survival exposes them to more stimuli and makes them smarter.
Crows are smart enough to complete puzzles and are highly trainable
2. Crows have long childhoods
They spend more time with their parents than any other bird. Juvenile crows have a lot of time to play and learn in their families.
It’s another possible reason for their high intelligence.
3. Crows recognize faces
They can pick out a person in a crowd, too. A 2006 study showed crows change their behaviors when humans are watching, but they don’t pick up on different facial queues.
Crows can even recognize other features and details like the crow that was trained to attack red hats like the Make America Great Again hats.
4. Crows hold grudges
And will tell other crows who to like or dislike. John Marzluff found they not only recognize faces but will share their experiences with other crows.
You don’t want a crow to hold a grudge against you. They can last for years!
5. Crows give people gifts
Crows have unshakable bonds with people just like you might have with pet dogs or cats.
It’s a form of social bonding called reciprocal altruism like when a cat brings you a dead mouse.
Try putting out a bird bath or treats. It might help you befriend some local crows!
6. Crows eat almost everything
They’re known to be opportunistic foragers. A crows diet can include fruit, seeds, insects, carrion (dead animals), nuts, small animals, eggs, and human scraps.
Sometimes they even follow birds to their nest to steal eggs.
7. Crows use tools
Not only have people caught them using pre-built tools of all sorts but crows are known to make tools, too!
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology discovered that crows know how to make tools by combining multiple non-functional parts.
8. Crows have funerals
It’s more like an autopsy minus the lab results. They gather around their dead to see what might be the cause of death.
This helps them learn about threats like predators and disease.
9. A group of crows is called a murder
This is another one of our creepy facts about crows.
For a long time crows have been associated with death and the macabre. Some possible explanations are their scavenging presence after battlefield deaths, associations with omens, and folklore.
Related: 15 Interesting Facts about Peregrine Falcons
10. They’re close with their families
Crows form lifelong bonds with their families and friends. Some grown crows even visit their families and help raise younger siblings.
They may wander and explore other territories but will return to open arms—well, wings— to their family and home territory.
11. Crows have a language of their own
Animal behavior and language is still largely a mystery. Scientists know other animals have their own languages but it’s so different from human language that it’s difficult for us to understand.
Repetition, pitch, and body language might encode different meanings in their caws, says UW Bothell biologist Douglas Wacker.
Crows are even said to have distinctive voices according to studies done at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
12. Crows can talk
Ok, birds don’t actually talk. It’s vocal mimicry. Whenever you hear birds speaking like people it’s because they learned to mimic specific sounds making this one of our creepiest facts about crows.
They also learn to mimic other sounds like alarms or other animals.
This crow seems convinced he's a tiny human:
13. Some have accents
Crow dialects vary by region. Their calls and vocalizations can vary so much that other groups of crows won’t understand them.
It’s pretty similar to how human dialects can differ.
14. Crows aren’t really black
They appear black to us because we don’t see as many colors as birds. Crow feathers appear iridescent and black with blue and green hues to people, but appear multicolored with jewel tones and a variety of patterns to other birds.
That’s because birds see ultraviolet light and patterns that are invisible to humans.
15. They know what “zero” means
The concept of zero had been an anomaly for many human civilizations throughout history. Afterall numbers refer to quantity, not the absence of quantity.
Andreas Nieder, a professor of animal physiology at the Institute of Neurobiology at University of Tübingen, discovered that crow brains register “zero” like other numbers. They even know it comes before 1.
If they know what zero is, what else do they understand?
16. Crows steal electric cables
Crows have been documented cutting fiber-optic cables in Japan to use for nest building.
Their nest building also includes scavenging for scrap metal. The wire from their nests can cause power outages when they touch live electrical wires. Oops!
What birds have you seen recently?
Share them on the Sparkbird App! Available in the Apple App Store.
- Related: How to Use the Sparkbird App
