Corvids in general are a very intelligent species of bird. No wonder they’ve populated all continents other than antarctica.The list of birds in the family Corvidae are a long list of crows, ravens, jays and magpies.Today i'll only be talking about one family in the corvidae tree, Corvus.Corvus has the three big hitters in terms of intelligence, Crows, Ravens, and Rooks.
I'll start with rooks, rooks are lesser known but are essentially european and western asian crows, research studies have demonstrated that rooks can do so in cognition tests, where tools are required, and can rival, and in some circumstances outperform, chimpanzees.But that's the lower tier of the corvids intelligence.
Something most people don't know is that Ravens team up with Wolves and pack bond with cubs to keep the lineage going the spiel is that the ravens lead the wolf pack to a more recent kill, or a smaller, sickly herd just waiting to be turned into wolf calories.in return the raven gets the leftovers. More importantly the bits and pieces that the wolves deem to be insignificant
Crows were my original topic to think of and how they are of basic human intelligence. Crows fill an interesting niche in a mix of active predation, waste management and keeping the balance. One perplexing situation is that in urbanized Japan crows have learned the bus, train and garbage collection times to snag food from unsuspecting people and waste disposal. They are smart enough to drop handfuls of nuts on the street, wait for the walk symbol to pop up and collect the goods.
Crows, unlike ravens who are mainly solitary, act in mobs, no joke ,mobs.The reason is so that they can collect information and spread the wealth like we do. They actively do what we do. learn a skill, teach it to others and the cycle continues.
There are crows in New Caledonia, living in primary forest. It inhabits only the main island, Grande Terre, and one of the Loyalty Islands, Maré Island that has zero woodpeckers. Could you guess what the crows in New Caledonia have been doing? Modifying sticks to help reach bugs in cracks and crevices. The tools are sticks trimmed and tweaked to have a hook and are even semi-self healing because of how the wear and tear works.
Corvids are just so fascinating to me because they (with the exception of pigeons for some reason) are the only non-mammal vertebrates to pass the mirror test. They can identify that the being in the mirror is them and it will mimic their movements. Most pets can't even do that and either end up attacking the mirror or get scared of themselves.
Why do YOU believe they have a poor reputation?
How do you think the traits and skills are passed between different crow cultures?
why do you think these skills were adapted other than for survival: would they be useless in a different habitat?
Replies
I think crows have a negative reputation because since there are so many of them and no sighns of the population going down. and they are actullay preaty intelegent and anoying they can also teach there herd what to do what to avoid and what to do.
I think the crows have a negative reputaion because they can be very annoying, take peoples thing (pets, food ect.). I think the crows were a good part in our culter providing food, clothes, home meterials, and a good way of communication. I think they skills were apapted to help them in many ways and provide for them and also in ways help us fend for ourselve in earlier times.
I think crows have a negative reputation because there are lots of them and sometimes they can annoy people. The skills the crows have are good for survival because they are different than other ones. They can also teach them to their flock and then they all can have special skills.
I think that crows have a poor reputation because there are a lot of them and they can be annoying. They can also sometimes cause trouble in crops or to landscapes which is why some people hate them.
I believe corvids have a negative reputation because they infest a lot of places and eat the food there, disrupting crop production for farmers. I think different crow cultures learn by watching other crows and utilizing those skills to teach others in their flock and so on. These skills would be useful in most environments but the tactics used would have to be different for example if the corvids were in a major metropolitan area vs a remote nature environment.
its weird that you mentioned crop production because crows and corvids are mostly just carnivorus. they eat carrion aka corpses and when the cant get that they make do with bugs and garbage.the only example of crop mis haps were pre industrial when every thing was hand planted.
They have a poor reputation because of how common they are, they're mischievious and annoying, which would definietly give them a bad rep. People don't want to see an extreme annoying, overpoulated bird everywhere they go.
a lot of animals are "common" but that dosent make them annoying. stinking squirrels get run over and have corpses lying on the road for 5 ever. not to mention they are stuipid rodents... i got off topic. just because the are common or more present than other animals doesnt mean there annoying.
Most birds like crows and ravens are illustrated as the irritating bird that is going to eat your crops. What people never realized or cared to see was that they were very clever, intelligent lifeforms that are honestly a lot like us. Most crow cultures are alike and intelligent so they can probably easily communicate with each other about how to do something, like getting food.
I think poor reputation, I think this because after seeing mivies that they were seen as annoying, unintelligent, and wild birds. I think all birds have there own personalities just like us humans and they just need time to adjust to there surroundings.
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