What amazing birds. They have funerals? That's just incredible. I knew they were intelligent and recognised faces, but there's a lot more to them than I ever knew
I have noticed that in the spring, after a crow has hatched, the parents seem to work together to teach it to respond to caws. This happens in the early mornings. The purpose seems to be to get the baby to respond with the correct number of caws. For example, the parent caws twice, listens, and after a moment, the baby responds and as practice goes on, it gets better and better at responding with the same number of caws until it can actually repeat five caws. It does this from further and further away. It seems to me that perhaps this is a way the parents teach the baby to identify with its flock - to find its way back to its parents after flying a distance away. You can distinguish the baby's caw because it is higher.
This is fascinating! You must have a local "murder" near you to listen to -- that takes some dedication and patience on your part to notice their training. Thanks for sharing this!
Caveat: Living in the Greater Seattle Area, Cascade-Fairwood (Sub-Urban) neighborhood:
This morning (2024-Jul-20th; around 05:30) because my bedroom window was open, I was awoken by a crow that was "cawing" five (5) times. Then, to my amazement, I heard another crow, much farther away respond in kind, also five (5) times. The "Caws" would alternate, sometimes only three (3) or four (4) times, and always returned from a distant, corresponding number of responses/caws.
That was when I realized that they were communicating. And this puzzled me. Since crows are often carrion creatures, and 'compete' for resources, I wondered why they were communicating with each other. My only conclusion is that they are not, in fact, "competing" for resources, but rather share resources through a previously unknown hierarchy.
I have always known that Crows are "intelligent" beyond what has been previously prescribed to them... But this morning's observations have piqued my interest.
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What amazing birds. They have funerals? That's just incredible. I knew they were intelligent and recognised faces, but there's a lot more to them than I ever knew
I had no idea either, before I started researching this last week. And to think they're mostly thought of as nuisance birds...
I have noticed that in the spring, after a crow has hatched, the parents seem to work together to teach it to respond to caws. This happens in the early mornings. The purpose seems to be to get the baby to respond with the correct number of caws. For example, the parent caws twice, listens, and after a moment, the baby responds and as practice goes on, it gets better and better at responding with the same number of caws until it can actually repeat five caws. It does this from further and further away. It seems to me that perhaps this is a way the parents teach the baby to identify with its flock - to find its way back to its parents after flying a distance away. You can distinguish the baby's caw because it is higher.
This is fascinating! You must have a local "murder" near you to listen to -- that takes some dedication and patience on your part to notice their training. Thanks for sharing this!
Caveat: Living in the Greater Seattle Area, Cascade-Fairwood (Sub-Urban) neighborhood:
This morning (2024-Jul-20th; around 05:30) because my bedroom window was open, I was awoken by a crow that was "cawing" five (5) times. Then, to my amazement, I heard another crow, much farther away respond in kind, also five (5) times. The "Caws" would alternate, sometimes only three (3) or four (4) times, and always returned from a distant, corresponding number of responses/caws.
That was when I realized that they were communicating. And this puzzled me. Since crows are often carrion creatures, and 'compete' for resources, I wondered why they were communicating with each other. My only conclusion is that they are not, in fact, "competing" for resources, but rather share resources through a previously unknown hierarchy.
I have always known that Crows are "intelligent" beyond what has been previously prescribed to them... But this morning's observations have piqued my interest.
~ Daniel W. Finney, CHt
(Renton, WA, USA)