Crows have a funny reputation with humans
Not very friendly
Make funny noises
Always seem to be hanging around with intent
Thought I should know more about them
So here we go
Crows have also been known to imitate the human voice, just like parrots.
Crows that have been trained to "speak" are considered valuable in parts of East Asia, as crows are a sign of luck
Some people have adopted crows as pets.
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Though humans cannot generally tell individual crows apart, crows have been shown to have the ability to visually recognize individual humans, and to transmit information about "bad" humans by squawking
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Crows can hear sound frequencies lower than those that humans can hear, which complicates the study of their vocalizations.
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Loud, throaty "caw-aw-ah"'s are usually used to indicate hunger or to mark territory.
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When defending a nest site or food, crows will usually enlarge their crest feathers and hunch their shoulders to increase their size.
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Softer, gurgling sounds have also been observed as a sort of beckoning call, or a call of affection.
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These noises are emitted from within the throat of the bird, much like a cat's purring.
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As a group, the crows show remarkable examples of intelligence, and Aesop's fable of The Crow and the Pitcher shows that humans have long viewed the crow as an intelligent bird.
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Crows and ravens often score very highly on intelligence tests.
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Certain species top the avian IQ scale
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Wild hooded crows in Israel have learned to use bread crumbs for bait-fishing
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Crows will engage in a kind of mid-air jousting, or air-"chicken" to establish pecking order.
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One species, the New Caledonian Crow, has also been intensively studied recently because of its ability to manufacture and use its own tools in the day-to-day search for food.
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These tools include 'knives' cut from stiff leaves and stiff stalks of grass
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Another skill involves dropping tough nuts into a heavy trafficked street and waiting for a car to crush them open, and then waiting at pedestrian lights with other pedestrians in order to retrieve the nuts
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On October 5, 2007, researchers from the University of Oxford, England presented data acquired by mounting tiny video cameras on the tails of New Caledonian Crows.
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It turned out that they use a larger variety of tools than previously known, plucking, smoothing and bending twigs and grass stems to procure a variety of foodstuffs
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Crows in Queensland, Australia have learned how to eat the toxic cane toad by flipping the cane toad on its back and violently stabbing the throat where the skin is thinner, allowing the crow to access the non-toxic innards; their long beaks ensure that all of the innards can be removed.
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Recent research suggests that crows have the ability to recognize one individual human from another by facial features
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So now we know more about crows
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Just one anecdote
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In Moscow some crows who were attacked by a man who disliked their noise and presence and later on he was attacked by them every time he came out of his apartment
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Yes crows are smart
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For me not so lovable though
