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Top-level
 If you live in an urban or suburban area where crows are around it's not too hard to befriend them. Rural crows are harder but not impossible. First and foremost they like food. Peanuts in the shell are a favorite treat but most anything works; crows are omnivorous. It's probably not good for them, but they adore cheetos. Photo: not a good shot but the only one I have of my beloved Tatterwing demonstrating next-level peanut technique: five at a time by spearing. No other crow figured this out. 253 comments
Try to be consistent. Make sure you have food for them each time you see them. Crows are so smart that this isn't essential. But it's a general principle in animal training which is, in a sense, what you are doing. Though as you'll discover, it's more like them training you. Personally, I like to talk to them. I have no idea whether this helps or not. But I treat each one with dignity, greet them when I see them, explain what I'm doing as I'm getting out a treat, ask them how their days have been, that sort of thing.  As to "how much they understand," I feel pretty confident going with "more than you'd expect." @ct_bergstrom do they ever bring you presents? I remember reading a news story once about crows that befriended a girl and bright her shiny things. @ct_bergstrom Descendants of the dinosaur, recognize faces of humans, are monogamous for life and live more than 15 years. But they are around me with a little too much than I care for. @ct_bergstrom I love this thread & your suggestions. Once I added shelled peanuts to my bird feeders the crows began showing up. I love them! @ct_bergstrom I talk to the birds, too. I've also learned that they fly away faster if I'm looking directly at them, so I have to talk to them while facing away from them. My neighbors probably think I'm insane. :) @ct_bergstrom we have both crows, red tailed and coopers hawks in our neighborhood. The crows frequently collaborate and chase the hawks. Since itβs not nesting season, sort of curious why theyβre doing it as I donβt think the hawks are a threat to the crows? Everything if found via google just says, yeah they do this. For the crows that live near my house, I have a call as well. It's simple. I go outside and shout "Hello, crows!" I'd do that every time before feeding them, especially if they were nearby to see me feeding. After a few months, they started doing something new. When I called them, even if they were blocks away, they started talking back with loud food calls. Now I can go outside, call once, and then listen to them calling back to me as they fly in from all around the neighborhood. Photo: A frequent visitor who goes around the house until she can see me through the window, and then endeavors to get my attention. The crows at work almost always spot me before I spot them. I think they recognize my gait because they can find me in a new jacket with the hood up against the Seattle rain. They have a particular flight pattern, a low swoop braking right in of me, to get my attention. Sometimes their wingtips brush my arm as they come by. This took a while; at first I would feed them any time I saw them, even up high on a light pole. Now I wait for them to swoop me. My avatar here is one of those work crows. Sometimes after an unpleasant work meeting or something they find me as, tired and grumpy, I'm leaving my building. They never fail to make me laugh, and to turn around my mood. I've never received trinkets from crows, but they've still given me more than I've given them. @ct_bergstrom I once received a dried stalk of grass that had gone to seed as a gift. The crow insisted that I take it. @Lee_in_Iowa @ct_bergstrom thatβs what I figured since I leave mealworms for them. @ct_bergstrom I absolutely love and am fascinated by crows. We have a very active murder around our property and they are totally intriguing. Then there are fledglings! If crows trust you, they will introduce you to their young ones. Nothing is better. Nothing. Crows are also loyal and brave. Please do not piss them off because they hold grudges β and share these grudges with their brethren. Victims, clockwise from top left: Bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, osprey, common raven. Which brings me to a warning. Tempting as it can be, under no circumstances should you use the instructions Iβve provided here to assemble your own personal arm of crows to carry out acts of unspeakable evilβor even to wage justified campaigns of retribution against your enemies. Crows are wise birds, and they will catch own quickly. Once your crow army realizes that your seeming friendship is merely an instrumental ploy to harness their power to your own ends, may God help youβfor I cannot. So that's pretty much it. It's relatively easy to befriend crows, and it's endlessly rewarding. I hope that a few of you are able to make crow friends of your own, and I look forward to hearing about your adventures with them. @ct_bergstrom Carl, thank you so much for this thread. I have an old and very dear friend who is a HUGE fan of crows. She even has one tattooed on her calf. She's currently in the hospital fighting for her life. And I sit here 3000 miles away feeling helpless. Your thread lifted my spirits during a rough holiday season. Thank you! β€οΈ  @ct_bergstrom Thank you for such an informative thread. I've always enjoyed our neighborhood crows. A group of them regularly spend time in our back garden (commonly 5-6). Never realized we could try to befriend them. Thanks for the advice. @ct_bergstrom I share your regard for and love of crows. Have had some very special interactions with them which have taught me much about their 'crowmanity'. Would add one more thing. They exist with other birds. Have often noted how when garden birds are threatened by arrival of a predator, one crow calls the others and in comes the support. They are an important part of a bird community @ct_bergstrom I have two different groups who come by for peanuts. There were a few initial squabbles but now they seem to have a time sharing arrangement.Original crow is still my fave, so smart and shiny! @ct_bergstrom such an informative thread thank you. Shared with wife and daughter. Weβve taken up birding the last year or so. Going to have to try and make friends with our neighborhood crows. In the spring we hand 6-8 crows regularly they disappeared for a while and just a couple around now. These pictures taken when they were in a tree in our backyard. @ct_bergstrom Itβs gonna be one of my New Yearβs resolutions. Thanks for the encouragement! Is dog kibble too dry for them? I always have some while Iβm walking my dogs.  @ct_bergstrom When I lived in Paulsbo, the crows and seagulls would protect the ducks from the bald eagles by attacking them! @ct_bergstrom They like going after the tail feathers of Red Tailed Hawks in my area. I like crows but when they gang up on Hawks I do get a bit angry at them and am glad when the crows tire of their attack as two against one is just not fair. I know that both crows and hawks are predatory on eggs and young and are territorial. @ct_bergstrom they nest out back and it gets very loud and territorial in summer. Crows are highest in order then swoop in the Magpies then the Jays and in between rush of air from wings the smaller birds.  @ct_bergstrom No crows near me, but I am trying to make friends with the resident geckos. @ct_bergstrom Reminds me of this classic reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/ki6fnd/oregon_i_accidentally_created_an_army_of_crow/ @ct_bergstrom, what a delightful welcome back! We have a neighbor who leaves peanuts for the crows, all over the neighborhood. They not only recognize him but watch him sleep through his bedroom window in anticipation of his morning feeding walks! @ct_bergstrom I tried this. I even got a decoy crow to encourage. My peanuts were discovered by blue jays. I have blue jays that come beg at my office window for nuts, but never a crow. |
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If you feed them regularly, they will come to recognize you. They're remarkably good at recognizing faces, gaits, and even the sound of a particular car's engine.
In the rain wearing a new jacket with the hood up? They recognize me.
After a year away from the office due to COVID policies, I thought my office friends would have forgotten me. No. They spotted me within a few yards of the parking garage.