Crows Are Smart

A crow is a bird of the genus “Corvus”. The American Crow lives from seven to eight years. Fun facts about crows include that they are super smart, mate for life, can remember faces, hold funerals for the deceased, have huge brains, can make tools & hide their food. A group of crows is called a Murder. Pretty cool stuff if you are into this kind of thing. I was not necessarily interested. That is until one day when…

One day I was coming home and I noticed a lot of crows in the air around my neighborhood. As I approached the center of town where our condo was, I spotted many more crows in the open field across the street. I counted upwards of 30 or more crows on the ground. They had gathered in a circle around something. I pulled up closer in my car and parked. I could see that the center of their attention was a dead bird, a dead crow. I was witnessing a Murder of Crows attending a funeral!

Upon closer inspection I noticed that they moved about mostly in pairs. My interest in crows was now beginning to grow. But still, I have a busy life with errands to run and bills to pay. So I decided that although this was interesting, I’m not really a “Crow Person” That is until one day when…

One day when I was going to work, I had just left the underground parking garage of our building in my Mini Cooper. I rounded the corner where the aforementioned open field was on my left. The other side of the street was lined with single-family homes. Street lights lined the block. Halfway down the street I spotted a squirrel bustling around in someone’s front yard. And like a typical squirrel, it was trying to decide if it was going to dart out in front of my car and make a run for the open field. Flip a coin, right!

It looked to me like it had decided to wait. That’s when I noticed the crow at the top of the street light pole right above the squirrel. As I approached in my car, the crow suddenly swooped down and scared the squirrel. Without hesitation, it rushed for the street and got caught under my front passenger-side tire. I was stunned! I had killed it. I knew it, mostly from the sound.

As I continued on with my morning work commute, I looked out the rearview mirror just in time to see the crow swoop down a second time from atop the street light. It walked up to the squirrel and started on its morning breakfast.

Crows are smart!

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