At my mother’s house — there are American Crows everywhere. Big black birds that complain if humans step outside. Odin watches.
Unfortunately, I left the good camera at home and am reduced to iPhone photography.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
My favorite kind of murder! Delightful.
I have three that sit in the tree outside my office window every morning at 9am sharp and stare intently at me until I throw them some peanuts.
If you think crows are uncanny, check out ravens . Bigger and smarter than mere crows, they network to survive the harsh winters, spotting precious carrion.
That could be my yard, except not nearly enough crows in the picture. There’s an elm tree a couple houses down where they fly in to roost for the night, at least a hundred of them, and the cacophany as they battle for the best spots can be deafening. It’s an amazing sight, watching them fill the tree branches and still more keep coming in from wherever they spent the day.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stone_the_crows
Always fun to witness interspecies cooperation of crows and gulls breaking open trash cans.
Go feed them! They remember faces, and after a time, may become your own nightmare bodyguard squad. You could be protected by a murder!
American crows are bigger. Common ravens even bigger. We get both around here.
There’s a walnut tree across the street from me, and you can hear the nuts popping under tires all autumn as they drop. The crows love the place. You have to get out of town and climb a mountain before you find any ravens though.
If you have 20 crows, whatever you do, don’t shoot 1. You will get corvid-19.
We get bluejays, common crows, fish crows and occasionally, ravens around here. Never had a problem with them, but I’m infamous for sharing leftovers with them if I’m out eating.
Of the lot, the only ones that ever appeared interested in getting anywhere near me normally were ravens. Alas, not a one volunteered to help me file my taxes.
I have a stump in my front yard that has water container for the crows year round. I also feed them unsalted peanuts once a day during the winter so they have some food. So far I have had them leave me two gifts on the stump. One was an ear piece from an earpod and the other was a tip of a ceramic christmas tree. They see me outside and they gather and wait for their peanuts and make a gorgeous racket when Im late bringing them.
I would ask how you know they aren’t Northwestern Crows, but the two species have recently been lumped.
@10 you get corvid-19 unless they flu off.
Many thousands of crows and ravens winter in the mid Rio Grande Valley, NM. They roost in the cottonwoods along the river and spend the days in the cities feeding on our dropped food bits and other human provided sources of food. Once I saw one working hard to crack an acorn, so I stopped and opened a few for it and within minutes several more showed up to share in the bounty. They seem to have very efficient communications.
What about magpies?
Magpies are smart, chigau, but crows are bigger.
They have an understanding.
I get to see a lot of crows on my cycle commute. They make better shorebirds than the seagulls. Somehow, the seagulls have picked up the concept that dropping molluscs from a height sometimes cracks them open, but they don’t seem to get that it helps to drop them on rocks/pavement, so I frequently see them dropping them on the sand, in the water, on the mudflats, in bushes, the busy freeway, etc. The crows have a much better grasp, and I’ve only ever witnessed them dropping molluscs on the multi-use path and the less trafficked frontage road.
Getting to watch them play/dive in the updrafts from the off shore winds hitting a slope/seawall is the only positive aspect when I have to deal with those hellish headwinds for half the year…
Back in the day, a University of Washington professor put on a Nixon mask and climbed up a tree on campus and stole eggs out of a crows nest. The crows were outraged of course and thereafter squawked at him whenever he walked on campus with the mask on, even many years later after several generations of crows had passed. It had become a custom in the crow community.
Could it have become a custom now as well among the crows living a few dozen miles south of campus?
Lots of magpies and carrion crows, and a few ravens, in Holyrood Park where I walk the dog. The magpies always cackle at her from a tree; the crows are bright enough to know that when she’s on the lead, they don’t need to fly from her.
The best camera is the one you have with you.
Now I want P Z to bring photos of “Raccoon City” .
I know Odin had two ravens but did he also have crows?
Our dog Jazz liked to lie in the sun out back of the house, and the local magpies liked to tease her. One would come an sit on the nearest fence post and start chattering at her, if she ignored that one another would come, sit on the next fence post and join in the scolding, and so on until Jazz leapt up, barking, to jump up at them, when of course the magpies would all fly off laughing derisively – I stand by this assessment, if you’ve heard a derisive magpie you’ll know what I mean. Jazz would lie down and the whole process would start again, if the magpies were bored this could go on all afternoon or until I went out and shouted “ENOUGH!” which usually worked.