Bird-brained, you say? The crow begs to differ

The object of the puzzle is for the crow to access a delicious treat placed out of reach in a large container. Here is what he has to work with: There is a small stick tied to a string. There are three tiny containers, each holding a small stone, hidden behind vertical bars. There is also a longer stick, locked away in a larger box-type mechanism. And there is the container holding the treat, which can only be accessed with the longer stick. First, it must remove the small stick from the string. Then, using that small stick, it must carefully retrieve the three stones, one by one, from their containers. The bird must then drop all three stones into the larger apparatus, where their combined weight releases the longer stick. Finally, it must use that longer stick to reach into the last container and claim the treat. Each individual step is manageable, and the crow has already learned how to perform each task. But to solve the whole puzzle and get the reward, the bird must understand the correct sequence in which the tasks must be completed. The crow — named "007," because apparently even scientists recognized a clever operative when they saw one — does it with remarkable ease, solving the challenge in just a few minutes. There is a BBC video of this experiment on YouTube, as well as many other crow videos demonstrating their intelligence. The task is estimated to require the reasoning ability of a seven- or eight-year-old. Crows, along with ravens, blue jays and magpies, belong to the corvid family — a group widely considered to include some of the most intelligent birds. I wrote previously about the remarkable intelligence of blue jays. In that comparison, perhaps the blue jay got the good looks, while the crow may have edged ahead in raw problem-solving. Due to their dark plumage and perhaps folklore, some regard crows as harbingers of doom (a group of crows is known as a "murder.") The American crow is a common bird throughout Ohio and much of the United States — where they reside year-round. They do well almost anywhere people live, such as farm country, neighborhoods, roadsides, city parks and parking lots. They are social, vocal and highly observant of both people and their natural surroundings. In addition to solving problems, crows have been attributed to facial recognition. Researchers have found they can recognize individual humans — in particular, threatening ones — and may even communicate that information to other crows and dive-bomb them to drive them away. However, if the same threatening human puts on a mask, the crows will ignore him or her, indicating their ability to recognize human facial characteristics. Like other birds, and corvids in particular, they engage in caching — hiding food for later consumption. They hide the food and have to remember where they put it in order to retrieve it. They may also pretend to stash food in one place to deceive other crows. It's a great evolutionary adaptation for surviving lean times. There is a popular video online about a girl who regularly fed the crows in her neighborhood and eventually began receiving "gifts" in return — buttons, bits of metal, beads and other shiny little objects left near the feeder. The collection is strangely charming, and a little funny, like a cat proudly bringing a mouse home. There was also a widely shared recent story out of Sweden, where crows were reportedly being trained to collect discarded cigarette butts in exchange for food at a theme park. It is an amazing demonstration of how quickly these birds can learn and adapt to human systems. One passerby noted, "It's eco-friendly and practical and it's also quite entertaining." While I am amazed that crows can be trained to perform such a task —especially a positive task to help clean up litter — it is infuriating that crows would need to be employed to clean up after humans. Crows are also known for being bold and opportunistic. They have even been known to learn when kids will be eating their lunch outside and may steal a sandwich or clean up a dropped French fry. There are also reports of them dropping nuts in streets and waiting nearby for cars to crack them open. As highly protective parents, crows are known for "mobbing" behavior — a loud, scolding, dive-bombing sort of chaos — in which they drive away hawks, owls, cats and even people who get too close to their nest. Crows are not only intelligent in this respect, they are also social — living in family groups and cooperating together. Incredibly, according to All About Birds, winter roosts can be from a few hundred up to two million crows! (The massive two million crow roost was documented in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, in the early 1970s) They have even been reported to hold "funerals," in which they gather around the bodies of dead companions and caw. Some researchers and writers have referred to crows as "feathered apes," a nickname meant to capture just how advanced their intelligence can seem. It is a dramatic phrase, but not an entirely inaccurate one. Crows use tools, solve multi-step problems, recognize faces, remember threats and adapt quickly to new situations. There is a lot going on in that "bird brain" of theirs.