In Defence of Crows

[facthunter]

Had 10 Magpies strolling around this morning in a space of about 25 feet. Nev

[Marty_d]

Where were the other 8 players?

[onetrack]

I don't reckon that's a photo of an Australian Raven, our Ravens have white irises.

[old man emu]

5 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Where were the other 8 players?

Stood down due to being caught intoxicated by a variety of recreational substances.

[red750]

 

 

[facthunter]

Very good.  Nev

[onetrack]

I'd like to know how long it took to train the crow, to do that bucket trick. I'll wager there was quite a bit of training involved. If you have food, you immediately have crows for friends.

 

I'm intrigued by how the local ravens have figured out where the cars and trucks drive on the roads. They know the vehicles follow the lanes pretty precisely.

They will walk off the lane when they're picking at something on the road, and a vehicle is coming, and then stand by the edge of the bitumen seal waiting for the vehicle to pass, then return to their spot.

 

I spotted a raven on a dual carriageway the other day, I was travelling at 110kmh in the left hand lane, approaching him, and he had landed on the RHS of the RH lane - and had started jaywalking across that lane towards me. He quite confidently walked across the width of that lane, aiming at something he'd spotted in my lane.

 

I whizzed past him with probably less than couple of metres to spare, as he confidently strode towards his selected spot, towards my oncoming vehicle, fully assured that I was going to stay in the lane I was in, and not hit him. It takes confidence to do that, as an adult human! - let alone when you're a bird!

[facthunter]

They must have learned a bit when they were Dinosaurs. Brains use a lot of energy so you have the SMALLEST one you can get away with.. You can see that effect working all a round you. Nev

[Litespeed]

Birds have very compact super efficient brain design, like a quantum computer compared to us old Intel inside mammals.

 

That trick with the cups would take very little time to train or rather problem solve 

 

Generally Corvids ie crow family are as smart as a 7 year old human.

[onetrack]

I reckon they're a bloody sight smarter than a 7 yr old. I can fool a 7 yr old, I can't fool a raven or a crow. They can very quickly figure out the range of your choice of weaponry, and the instant you poke a rifle barrel out of an opening such as a window, they're gone!

 

The old man told us a story from the early 1930's, when he was with a group, fencing on a station in the Murchison (W.A.) region - about how the ravens would wait until all the blokes left the camp, then they'd fly down, and lift the lid off the camp oven (grabbing the lid handle with their beak), and scoff the contents.

 

So they decided to leave one bloke in the camp, lying quiet and doggo with a rifle, to knock off at least one of the cheeky buggers. But the ravens never came near the place, all day! - he reckoned they counted the number of blokes leaving, and knew there was one still there!!

 

They always amuse me, they way they scheme things out. You can watch them planning their moves to investigate a food source. I was watching one recently, he landed on the roof of the shed behind my block, looking a little bit obvious, because they never land there. But he was scouting the territory. I watched him checking everything out, the lay of the land, the whereabouts of the humans - and more importantly, the dog.

 

When he reckoned all the cards were lined up, he flew off the roof and glided down to a patch of vegetation between our properties. More checking out the surroundings, checking out the sky (repeatedly - birds are always scanning the sky) - then he walked a few metres across the yard to the dog bowl and the dog biscuits, where he grabbed a quick snack - very quietly, not making a sound (they're excellent at that) - and once he was satisfied, and assured that nothing threatening was coming, he was off, to find another snack.

 

Edited August 16 by onetrack

[red750]

Just to prove that crows aren't the only clever birds, watch this parrot.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

 How did it finish?  Nev

[red750]

It matched all balls with the correct bins. Had problems recording the video.

 

With videos on Facebook, you can't copy the link, so I use the video option of Snipping Tool to take a screen grab and save that. Hit the stop button a few seconds early.

[facthunter]

Don't worry He was doing a great job matching the colours.  ALL very Interesting, thanks.Nev