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Carl T. Bergstrom

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.

211 comments
Carl T. Bergstrom

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.

Carl T. Bergstrom

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.

Carl T. Bergstrom

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.

Sarah Sammis

@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.

Don Weaver

@ct_bergstrom I absolutely love and am fascinated by crows. We have a very active murder around our property and they are totally intriguing.

Carl T. Bergstrom

Then there are fledglings! If crows trust you, they will introduce you to their young ones.

Nothing is better.

Nothing.

Carl T. Bergstrom

Crows are also loyal and brave.

Please do not piss them off because they hold grudges — and share these grudges with their brethren.

Victims, clockwise from top left: Bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, osprey, common raven.

Carl T. Bergstrom replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

Which brings me to a warning.

Tempting as it can be, under no circumstances should you use the instructions I’ve provided here to assemble your own personal arm of crows to carry out acts of unspeakable evil—or 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 you—for I cannot.

Carl T. Bergstrom replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

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.

lakelady replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@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! ❤️

Mary Nelson replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@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.

Greenseer :autism: 💚 replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@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

lauowolf replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@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!

Matti Aleve replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom such an informative thread thank you. Shared with wife and daughter. We’ve 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.

Scott L. Williams replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom It’s gonna be one of my New Year’s resolutions. Thanks for the encouragement! Is dog kibble too dry for them? I always have some while I’m walking my dogs.

David replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom To Live Where Ravens Call

Often I will hear them overhead.
I may be in the garden,
Sitting on the stoop,
Or even indoors.

Driving, I may see a pair
Flying over a farmer mowing his fields,
Black feathers glinting as they tilt in the sun.

Always their presence causes me to stop.
To be still for a moment.

This has been going on so long
It’s impossible to say
When it became essential
To live where ravens call.

deadrose replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom We live near the southern roost and feed our crows regularly.

We have an old arbor in the back yard and perch a dog dish up there full of puppy chow, peanuts, and other delicious treats, especially during breeding season. They're still skittish about us being in the yard when they are, but they will sit on the arbor & wait for us to come in the kitchen. They make deliberate eye contact before they fly off to a nearby tree. And we do get occasional gifts.

Eugene Parnell replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom A few years ago I was between jobs and used the down time to do garden projects. I’d often pick up lunch from a fast food chain and eat outside. I’d give my extra fries to the crows. I wouldn’t call them friends exactly but they knew me. Then one day I was working and I saw a crow flit by and something dropped into the grass beside me. It was a shrimp. A cooked shrimp with tail on, grill lines, and sweet and sour sauce. My crow friends had air dropped me a shrimp.

KatM replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom I was making progress befriending the crows in my neighborhood but they won't come to my yard anymore. My guess is it's because of the aggressive blue Jays, fox, and random cat that also spend a lot of time here. I think there's enough food around they didn't want to deal with the drama and I understand but I'm kinda sad about it.

Ben Gleeson replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom no crows here. Our local corvids are ravens (Braidwood, near Canberra). We don’t deliberately feed them, but cohabit nonetheless. They’re regularly found in our kitchen and chook pen. I took this blurry pic on the wing one time. (Edited cos they’re just ravens, not ‘little’).

whetstone replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom inspired by this thread, literally the *only* thing i asked for for christmas was a large (25 pound) bag of unsalted peanuts.

practicing my potential calls: either “hello crows” (i like the internal rhyme) or 「カラス来い!」(sounds like « karasu koi », “come, crows!” in Japanese).

i am about to have so many friends

RNsassy replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom I loved this thread, and I'm going to do this after the new year. Cool birds.

Ginny Maier replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom my husband and I befriended an injured Common Raven in the Duluth Zoo many years ago. We began playing a sort of "pass the stick" game with it through the bars of its cage. It clearly came to recognize us and would bring a stick to the bars of the cage whenever we saw it. I don't know how many zoo visitors it had trained in this way, but we were thrilled to be able to share some fun with it whenever we saw it.

Jay Jason, DJ - FM/AM replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom

Carl, this is a wonderful thread - thank you so much for taking the time to assemble it and share it with us. We are going to try to befriend our neighborhood crows - and will be sure to not use them for evil. 🙂

Liz Field 🏳️‍⚧️ She/They replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom this is great! Thank you. My dad’s middle name was Crow, so I gave my daughter that middle name, too. She is Lily Crow & she has a crow tattooed on her arm. We also used to get hundreds of crows flying around our neighborhood. I would watch them closely but never tried to befriend them or feed them. But I think I will. I’ve always related well to animals & birds.

London! replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom re: safe crow snacks for anyone reading, a great option is to find your local speciality parrot shop and look at their offerings for large parrots. Crows aren’t hookbills of course, but the kinds of things that are tasty and safe for large, highly intelligent tool-using birds tend to be similar. You can buy a big bag of raw unsalted nuts, seeds, bits of dried fruits and veggies, and little pressed nugget type bits in bulk to amaze and amuse any bird inexpensively!

dhooverart replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom Wonderful thread, thank you. I'm hoping to make friends with the crows that nest in the trees next to my house. I could hear their fledglings this year but never saw them. It would be such a treat to see those grumpy faces.

Samhain Night 4 Harris replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom When I lived in Paulsbo, the crows and seagulls would protect the ducks from the bald eagles by attacking them!

Mary M. Redoutey replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@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.

Colopen replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom from reading your thread, I am understanding that crows are awesome & beautiful

Mask’al’s Wager replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom I KNEW IT! There was so much bird drama yesterday on the back balcony (upper NYC) - it was the hawk threatening all the birds (noise, signifying nothing). All the crows got in one tree and just started barking at her like "SHUT UP ALREADY" - I only got the tailend of it on a terribly shot video but you can hear them at least (and a wee bit of the hawk flying away).

Cavyherd replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom

I remember vividly the Lakota Elder who warned about the inadvisability of pissing crows off, or messing with them when they are in a bad mood.

And, IIRC, they're capable of being Quite Creative with their retribution.

Chris Coleman replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom I was raking leaves a few weeks ago when I heard some birds making a racket. I turned and saw a crow chasing a bald eagle over my neighbor’s house.

TJ Radcliffe replied to Carl T. Bergstrom

@ct_bergstrom If you've got any middle-grade crow-lovers in your life they might enjoy this book, which features an intelligent crow (set in the far futures when humans did something to make many animals intelligent and then vanished from the world). Adults have enjoyed the series as well! amazon.com/Cedar-Island-Dreams

Tom Chappell

@ct_bergstrom This was a lovely thread, Carl - thanks so much for sharing it.

Pd Lietz

@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.
Now I sadly need to wait to March for the crow fam to come back. But have endless photos to go through!
They are precious your photos

injenuity

@ct_bergstrom I befriended them with mulch before I even thought of treats. They were stealing it from my plant beds so I made them their own pile. And then they dropped the fledglings off for daycare in the driveway across the alley. I also gave them puddles to play in when it was dry.

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