My home has become 'Crow Central' Why?

[clevercrows]

Teila,

Please watch this short video of an Ornithologist and Professor named John Marzluff who studies the brain and intelligence of American Crows.

The video is called "Crows: Smarter Than You Think with UW Professor John Marzluff". You can do a Google search for it (use that exact phrase), or here is the direct link to it:

If you do a Google search, select the one that is 47 minutes and 58 seconds long. There are a couple of different ones from him with the same title, but that is the one I am referring to.

I am fascinated with Crows and how smart they are. As far as brain size, it's pretty neat that humans have the biggest brain (in relation to body size), then the Dolphin, then the Crow, and then the Chimpanzee and Bonobo! Their level of intelligence is equivalent to a 7 year old human child, according to many Ornithologists and Scientists. Oh, and whenever you see a group of Crows, they are most likely all family members from different generations.

I have a male and female Eclectus Parrot, and I feed Crows every day. There is a Crow that actually calls me "mama" (he is imitating my male Eclectus Parrot...he sounds exactly like him!).

They are really special birds with a lot of unique traits that are so much like us. Please watch the video and you will see what I mean.

I would love to hear what your opinion is after you learn just how special they are!

Take care,
Kim
Covina, CA

 

[Teila]

Howdy clevercrows

I took the opportunity of a quiet day at work to watch the video .. thank you for that!

Betty is a very clever girl!
The surfing and sliding was pretty cool!

As you asked for my opinion after I had seen the video, I will share honestly …. I think some of the assumptions and probabilities could be stretching it a little; the encouraging dogs to knock over students so the Crows could have the food they dropped was one of them.

I had seen the Professor’s Cave Man experiments on another video during my countless hours of research.

I do not argue that the Crows are very intelligent birds and have seen numerous documentaries and read many articles to that effect.

I guess, for me, it is like trying to convince a cat or dog hater that they need a pet cat or dog.

While I understand how people can become attached to Crows, are fascinated by them and their intelligence and love having them around; I do not. Not only are they destructive, they are a threat to my chicks and the constant noise drives me to distraction while I am trying to work.

I had someone on another thread in which Crows were being discussed advise me that I needed to make friends with these Crows; find a designated spot, feed them every day at the same time and train them to not make noise. She also added that if she did not feed her ‘pet’ Crows she has around the property on time they start “busting up the place” and raiding the shed etc.

I believe encouraging them is just going to increase numbers and unless I can train them to caw softly, not going to happen.

I also used to have a bird feeder in the tree for the Rosellas and 6 or 7 would come down every afternoon … 6 or 7 Rosellas then turned into 6 or 7 Rosellas with 30 odd accompanying Turtle Doves!

Having experienced a mite infestation from a visiting bush turkey, I am not going to encourage high numbers of possible parasite and disease carrying wild birds into close proximity of the gals; I only live on a small, residential block.

I have been ‘corrected’ that healthy birds and Crows are able to keep their mite/lice populations under control in the wild but more research indicates that lice and mite enjoy the comfort of a warm nest and the parent birds sitting on it and subsequent chicks. When the nest is vacated by the parents and chicks when grown up, the lice/mites remaining in the nest look for another host.

Encouraging multiple wild birds to your garden may increase the chances of them nesting in your garden, close to the food source and then, when they vacate the nest, there are some rather inviting, permanent resident chickens that the lice/mite can move on to.

I actually love birds of the non cawing type and enjoy watching them splash around in our upper pond etc. Any birds that visit per chance are welcome and definitely would not be harmed but I am not going to send out an open invitation to the masses.

There is a house a short way from here that feeds the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos every afternoon and around 4pm 100-150 cockatoos fly over on their way to be fed .. I have seen them feeding on the front lawn of this house and have wondered just how much it is costing the homeowner to feed them all every afternoon…while I am sure they get enjoyment out of it, it must be draining on the purse strings and again, might get to the point where you are feeding them because you have to, not because you want to.

Call me stubborn but I am not going to be bullied into giving in to the demands of something I do not want here and especially something that is going to wake me early, disrupt my work, invite more noisy friends and have a hissy fit if I do not give in to their demands

 

[drumstick diva]

very well said Teila, I agree completely

 

[appps]

Thought of you today. There was one sitting on the light pole half way up our street, hopefully he kept on going!

 

[Teila]

Their Back!!

Last week I lost my first egg to them … When Cilla and Blondie lay an egg, if they linger in the nest box, the eggs dries and sticks to their ample butt feathers. I quite frequently find an egg in the coop or in the run where one of them has jumped out of the nest box, complete with egg and it has dropped off at some stage. Last weekend I had to bail up Blondie in the garden as she was still carrying her egg around with her.

Anyways, because they started demanding to be let out at 3pm [I do not finish until 4] and hubby could not put up with the noise any longer

, he let them out at 03:40 and did not see Cilla’s egg in the run … when I came out at 4pm a Crow had gone into the run, somehow managed to drag the egg onto the lawn and had cracked it open and was eating it!

Yesterday a Crow was trying to drag their feed container across the lawn after he had threatened Crystal and pushed her away from it!

And, compliments of the Crows, I was up at 5am this morning .. for gawd sakes, it is the weekend!!

This means war!!!

 

[Teila]

So, KiKi was broody and very determined but I managed to break her, eventually. Then Blondie decided she would go broody but KiKi decided “If I cannot be broody, nor can you .. out ya go!" and kept kicking Blondie out of the nest box

After I let everyone out yesterday, Blondie took the opportunity of KiKi being otherwise engaged to have a crack at settling into the nest box .. I heard Blondie squeal and wandered down the path to tell KiKi that I had it under control, a weekend of being locked out of the nest box was planned for Blondie and that it might be an idea to give her a break. However, when I got to the coop KiKi was not in there with Blondie .. there was a Crow in there with her!

I am starting to get peeved and these Evil Black Butted @#$%^’s are pushing my ‘do no harm’ limits .. right now I think I could cheerfully kill one if I could get a hold of it!!!

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Oh my what cheeky crows. So what did the crow do when you found it in the nest box?

I think crows are quite fascinating, since I have an interest in animal cognition. Still I can imagine they can be annoying neighbors since they are noisy and steal food, especially if you keep your windows open a lot. The 2 who stick around are probably a mated pair and the others who stop by are just friends who stop be for a visit. That is why the 2 stick around when you play the crow-be-gone cd, but the other quit stopping by. Have you ever seen a nest in one of your trees? It may not be in the tree where they usually roost at night.

I recently came across a corvid blog that has an entry by a researcher from Brisbane http://coyot.es/thecorvidblog/page/2/ You might be able to track him down to ask advice.

The regular blogger also is a crow expert, so if you post a question, she might get back to you with some advice.

This link has a corvid email where you might be able to get some advice http://sefs.washington.edu/research.acl/

If you find a nest, the crows might try to defend it, so it would help to get some advice on how to deal with the situation. Please, keep updating us on the situation. I'm curious how things will turn out.

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

Update:

It has been 5 days since my last post and I have not been pecked to death yet and they have not started trying to smash through the windows but they are still here!

Driving me insane!!  They are so noisy!  I was trying to talk to a client on the phone the other day and he was having a great laugh at my expense as he could hardly hear me over the noise and when I explained my predicament he had could not stop chuckling; should charge him extra for the entertainment factor lol.

It must be bad because even hubby noticed them and he pretty much gets into the work-zone and would not notice anything much going on unless someone was to disconnect the power!

Anyway, he tried hanging a couple of old CD's from the tree out the front.  All that accomplished was to give the Crows a disco ball under which to continue their party!

On the up side, even though I am not allowed to have one, I could probably get a rooster and no-one would know ... no chance he could make more noise than these evil black sqwarkers that start way before the sun comes up!

We live in a single level home, with a double level home on either side of us; yesterday I was in the back garden and both neighbours roofs had about 10 crows each, all looking down, watching me .. scary stuff!  

One was in the back garden the other day, pretty close to my 5 month old bantam cochin and he was bigger than she is!

Also, walking through the lounge room today, glanced over at the screen door and there is a beady eyed crow, standing there looking back at me.

Whatever wrong I did to invoke this feathered pestilence, I'm sorry, please call them off or send them back from whence they came! 

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

Teila, hi, my user name is brucvl. i have been reading some of your crow posts! That is crazy! Crows r one of the most intelligent birds there are! With that said, if you literally run out of your house and holler and yell at them all the while running towards them they should move on. If u have ever seen a momma crow talking to her babies its heart wrenching. they get the message pretty quick and should move on after a few days of harsh treatment. they dont want to put their babies or friends in danger. they get the message pretty fast, also try throwing a handful of rocks at them. try to have your rocks in hand for a good first scary impression!
good luck ! hope this does the trick, be consistant and your problems should be history pretty quick!

 

[bluema]

Not everyone may agree, but I use a Red Rider bb gun when I have situations with birds.
I would like to qualify that I've never hurt any animal in my life and my lucky hens will all get buried with old age/natural causes since I'm a hopeless animal lover.

Once I had a problem with a yellow-bellied sap sucker pecking holes on my lovely hickory tree all day. The migratory birds are known to cause extensive damage to trees they target for sap, and the one I saw was about to girdle my beautiful hickory and kill it. I felt hopeless, and no matter what commotion I made near ground level, it made no difference and the bird pecked away.

My husband then brought out a Red Rider. I said, "The birds are protected, you can't hurt them!" He said, "I'll just scare him" and proceeded to shoot the nearest tree trunk next to the bird. The bird got scared with the loud pop and flew away! I was so happy...for a moment. The bird came right back. He scared it away again, and the bird stayed away longer this time. My husband then left it up to me to use the bb gun in his absence, and assured the bb couldn't possibly seriously hurt the bird at the target range even if I accidentally shot it. I tried in my husband's absence and it was surprisingly easy. I literally had to shoot near the bird all day long, and it finally went away after it made loud protesting calls.

Since then, I do the same to hawks that perch in my property to SCARE them away, and it always worked well. The raptors are everywhere here in TN, and are real problem to all chicken keepers, but they're protected and they do have to survive, just not hurt/eat my pet chickens.

It's always frustrating when your neighbors feed destructive wild animals. I once had a neighbor who fed raccoons every night, and it drove me crazy.

Since crows are so smart, it won't take much for you to scare them away once they figure out they can't just perch high and feel safe with bb balls loudly bouncing off near them.