The torresian crow (corvus orru)
Posted on 06/26/2004 7:38:02 PM PDT by yankeedame
Cluey crows get away with blue murder
By Philip Hammond
June 25, 2004
ONE of Australia's most disliked birds, the crow, is getting smarter and learning how to outwit humans as they gang up on Brisbane as never before.
Like flying foxes, the metropolitan area's loudest opportunists are now gathering at 11 roosting sites across the city, says Griffith University senior lecturer in ecology, Darryl Jones.
Among the most intelligent members of the bird world, Queensland's torresian crows learn from one another and tell each other about their new skills, Dr Jones said.
A good example of how this cultural exchange worked was the way crows have learned to flip over cane toads and disembowel them without coming near their poison glands.
In the same way, they have taught each other how to open pizza boxes, he said. And they commonly take advantage of bowls of pet food left out for dogs and cats – to the extent that several crows may intimidate a pet away from its food source.
And while they are socialising every night in flocks of up to 500 birds, there's no sign their numbers won't continue to increase.
In some US industrial areas, as many as 100,000 crows have been counted roosting in one place.
Dr Jones's research dating back to the 1950s suggests ornithologists had to go as far as Jimboomba to find crows – they were virtually unheard of in Brisbane.
In country areas, crows are happy to roam around in pairs, but "around the world, crows everywhere have been moving into towns in huge numbers".
"It is now very clear that crows meeting in these communal roosts exchange information about where the food is," he said.
The 11 known roosts are at Holland Park West, Wellers Hill, Moorooka, New Farm, The Gap, Hill End, Norman Park, St Lucia, Enoggera, Indooroopilly and Nudgee.
"Mazda Queensland in Salisbury had a lot of dramas with crows at one time," Dr Jones explained. "They had a line of high end luxury cars called Eunos and for some reason, it was only Eunos which crows targeted to peel off the black plastic which held the back window in."
Now Dr Jones and a colleague are working through more than 27,000 responses to the ABC's WildWatch wildlife survey, finding that Australians across the country share a dislike for crows and ravens, plus a wealth of other information about the wildlife which live close to humans.
The Courier-Mail
heh, i love both crows and ravens (ravens esp, as they are the "king corvids"). fascinating article :)
I noticed an increase of Crows in my little Mid-cities area between Dallas and Ft. Worth in the last few years. The Crows there learned to tear open the garbage sacks put out for collection. I thought it was stray dogs or cats, but it was the crows. And they're not afraid of you either.
Do this on and off a couple of weeks and that crow will get so close you can finally reach up and grab him with your hands.
Subsequently I can usually teach the crow to talk. Maybe it's some of my students tearing up jack down there in Australia.
Right now I'm wondering if catbirds can also be instructed in proper language. There's one out in my garden eating bugs every day. He likes for me to rake up the ground before he jumps in to eat. Cute little guy ~ boy will he be surprised when he finds himself in my hand.
Wish I could drop a few of them out of the sky with my 12 guage, but I think I'd get in trouble...
Yeah, they're everywhere.The worst ones are the grackles. I'm certain that some of the flocks I've seen in the evening have had over 100,000 of the filthy flying rats.
filthy flying rats? hey now! lol, i know they have a bad rap in many parts of the world, but comeon, the things are pretty and very smart. rats? rats are hairy little beasts that will bite you until you bleed if you upset them. rats are filthy. corvids are some of the more intellegent and sophisticated birds.
EEEKKK Alfred Hitchcocks' "The Birds"!!!
ASk Tippi Hedren 'bout dem birds.
I'm a crow lover, too. They're awesome, no doubt about it.
I had a raven for a pet as a kid,Smartest animal I ever had.My bird was killed by an angry golfer for taking his ball.
well then, you need to visit just about anywhere down south when no other hunting seasons are going on.
Lots of good ole boys go out to a field or pasture and put a "crow" tape on a loudspeaker system to call the crows in.
Just like dove hunting after that, except there is no bag limit.
They would kill us all if they could.
Here is one that I always use on the slow-witted "If a crow is a raven, then all ravens most be crows." Public school children can be left wondering about that statement.
if you're talking about the actual feathered birds, corvids dont kill. at least nothing larger than themselves. they are social scavengers. the problem the aussies are having isnt attacks, its just that they dont like them around all the time. (and honestly, eevn my love for them doesnt matter, too much of something like birds can be a huge pain in the neck)
though, the garbage men should be happy, they generally eat most organic (and some inorganic) products in the waste baskets. they may leave a mess, but they take alot away with them.
I have a different experience. There are a whole lot of big, fat black crows flying around in So CAl. Sometimes I need to work outside. One time I got hit in the head by some sort of tree seed that was 2" long and 1" dia. I picked it up and threw it at the stupid bird and they never came near me from that time!
bump!
crows and ravens arent the same. they are however, all corvids.
as are magpies, rooks, jackdaws, and jays... i think im missing one though.....
Oh good! We're safe.
Anyway, my mother has seen crows kill and eat squirrels.
heh, i know this may sound kind of tree hugger, but consider the intellegence we are dealing with. maybe they just wanted to play? you're showing hostility may have simply convinced them to not bother with making a friend of you.
Anyway, my mother has seen crows kill and eat squirrels.
hence the qualifier "nothing larger than themselves" crows can be 8lbs in weight.
He would come back for a couple of years and sit atop the church steeple, calling my dad. Finally, he stopped coming.
Thanks for reminding me of a fond memory.
I used to live in Australia and the Magpies are worse than the crows where I was, west of Sydney. They nested at the end of my drive, and I when I walked or rode my bicycle out past the tree thay would dive-bomb me, and they're not small birds. I started carrying a small basebal bat and they would flee when I would shake it at them.
They kill and eat both the eggs and babies of songbirds...Several of them will gang up on the nesting moms and chase them off while the others swoop in and take the eggs or fly off with babies in their mouths to eat them at another spot...they are also vectors of West Nile Virus
17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire- Leupold 10X40- Modified Ruger 10/22 Mag -Green Mountain 17HMR
HBAR- marked EXperimental
Are you sure? Crows like to gang up their prey you know. They hunt in packs.
Remember they pecked that guy's eyes out in the movie the Birds. It was awful.
But I still like crows because they are so smart.
lol! Let justice be done.
STONE THE CROWS!!!
I hate those things.
Wake you up in the morning and rat you out when you are hunting.
A .22CB round in an 18" barrel makes very little noise.
It's one of God's gifts to us and not everyone has it.
I've always enjoyed being able to have almost any bird believe me to be a bird.
You want a thrill, get near an eagle. I had one hovering just a yard away from me while he was on the hunt.
Someday go visit the penguins in San Diego. Dress in a black jacket, black trousers, and a white shirt. Stand there and rock bath and forth. They'll communicate with you~! (Almost anyone can get them to respond if they dress this way.)
One of my cousins further West is much better at it than me. I've seen him give a command to a wild duck to jump into his arms, which the duck then did. (He used to raise pheasants and other exotic fowl).
Remember they pecked that guy's eyes out in the movie the Birds. It was awful.
LOL! its a MOVIE. heheh
the fairy tale of crows pecking eyes out to kill people comes from the corvidae scavenger style. they feed on cadavres. the eyes are simple and soft and full of vitamins. they dont kill people though.
and yes, crows gang up, but they dont exactly take down bears or bull mooses (or even moderately sized dogs for that matter)
So, Get ahead of the curve. Eat more chicken.
hehe, can you blame them? they see a threat, they warn everyone else. you hate them becaues they're too smart for your likes in an animal. :) oh wells, to each his own.
But the most hated bird in my book is the !@#%ing Canada Goose. Those things are BIG, LOUD, mean, fast, and take craps everywhere.
We get grackles here too, but I haven't seen them as much as the crows or geese.
we have 8 crows that nest in the shopping center i work at. i can get 3 or 4 of them to "talk" to me before work almost every day (if i sit long enough). its great, ill just sit on the hood of my car and enjoy the little dark prisms while they eat some of my whatever i throw to them, then go to work.
Sounds yummy.
they dont kill people though.
I bet if they saw you tied up and unable to defend yourself they would peck your eyes out for sure. I don't trust them.
I had never thought of it that way, but you are right. I can make a sound like a baby bird, and have communicated with many birds from parrots to eagles at the zoo. Never realized it was a gift, just picked it up. Gotta remember to say thanks to the Big Guy for it.
Appreciate you for pointing that out.
The crows aren't getting smarter, you're on the wrong end of the lens.
lol, they're just birds. if you were tied up and unable to defend yourself, they would wait for you to die. (by starving or by another animal)
aside from the pack-nature, they share mannerisms with the Bald Eagle. would you trust it?
LOL!
How nice of them. Crows are our friends.
I'm sure they would come up and take your pulse, or see if you were still breathing before they pecked your eyes out.
Crows are very sensitive to human suffering. LOL
I'm fortunate to see bald eagles nearly every day. ....sometimes more than a few. On occasion I see one or two crows harrassing one of them, and I always wondered why the (much larger and stronger) eagles put up with it.
Closest I ever got to a bald eagle was about 10 -15 feet -- the thing soared right past me, and I was close enough to see his eyeball.
Also saw a red-tail hawk swoop down and nab a rabbit. Didn't fly off with it, just stood there and ate it right in front of me on the ground, no more than a few feet away.
Two words: Border Collie. My local golf course got one specifically for that purpose (people were complaining about the goose crap all over the course), and the dog chased all the geese away in short order. ....those dogs can run pretty much all day without tiring.
Eagles and crows no like each other! I've seen bald eagles getting harassed by crows over the St. John River in New Brunswick. A couple of crows would zero in on an eagle and flank him, just like a couple of jet fighters intercepting an intruder in their airspace. Amusing to watch.
They look all pretty, but when they religiously land on your window at 5 am "CACOW!!! CACAOW!!!SQAUUUUAAAAKKKK!"
I almost went to get a shotgun to take care of the problem...
Can they outwit a speeding bullet?
I still say give New Jersey to the crows.
Ever had a woodpecker start in on your house? Talk about noise!! Yeah, a very stupid woodpecker - my house is even sided. But I had to get up to chase it away at 4AM.
Just imagine at 5 am... not outside, but literally RIGHT by your head...
"SQUAAAAK!!! Tap Tap Tap..." right on the window two feet from your head...
I am sure that woodpecker was annoying, but those huge parrot like cacatoos will startle you out of bed...not just annoy you...actually they do both.
What do guys mean by "talk".?
I have a Bald Eagle that visits my backyard tree once a week, I just stand there in Awe!
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