Crows are genius birds! Maybe you've heard them CAW, CAW, CAWING. But all that cawing isn’t just noise, they are talking to each other. When they are hungry, threatened, angry or sad, they call out their feelings. If they are in trouble, they call other crows to help them. If a crow thinks someone was mean to him, like a scientist who captures him and bands his leg, he tells the other crows. Wherever that person goes, many crows swoop around his head and yell CAW CAW CAW! Crows can even tell their babies what the bad person looks like. When they grow up, they recognize his face and swoop down around him, yelling CAW, CAW, CAW!
Many photographs in this book show crows thriving in hot jungles, in cold snowy places, in farms, near rivers and the ocean. Crows even learn by watching people in cities. They drop nuts onto roads where cars can crack the shells and wait for traffic lights to change to swoop down and eat them. Crows have learned to fish by using pieces of bread as bait!
They make tools out of twigs to fish for grubs in holes in tree
branches.
Some scientists call them "feathered apes" because they can make and use tools sometimes even better than our closest animal relatives, chimpanzees. The brains of crows are so large and well developed, in some ways, like ours, that they love to play. They chase each other through the sky, sled down snow banks, swing from tree branches and play with objects they find or steal.
Crows are playful, sociable, toolmakers. They are also noisy and aggressive. These genius birds can teach us to pay attention to the environment, keep changing and learning, solve problems, and devotedly care for mates, family and community.
Many photographs in this book show crows thriving in hot jungles, in cold snowy places, in farms, near rivers and the ocean. Crows even learn by watching people in cities. They drop nuts onto roads where cars can crack the shells and wait for traffic lights to change to swoop down and eat them. Crows have learned to fish by using pieces of bread as bait!
They make tools out of twigs to fish for grubs in holes in tree
branches.
Some scientists call them "feathered apes" because they can make and use tools sometimes even better than our closest animal relatives, chimpanzees. The brains of crows are so large and well developed, in some ways, like ours, that they love to play. They chase each other through the sky, sled down snow banks, swing from tree branches and play with objects they find or steal.
Crows are playful, sociable, toolmakers. They are also noisy and aggressive. These genius birds can teach us to pay attention to the environment, keep changing and learning, solve problems, and devotedly care for mates, family and community.
