@ct_bergstrom Befriending crows, eh?

@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. 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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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’).

@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

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

@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.

@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. 🙂

@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.

@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!

@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.

@ct_bergstrom I’m in!!

@ct_bergstrom Great thread. We had magpies, crows and ravens all over the place around the ranch where I grew up. And, yeah, I would talk to them and watch them while they watched me. Fascinating birds, but they just said no to letting a certain little girl catch them so they could be her pets.

@ct_bergstrom

Thanks for sharing your experience! I have been observing magpies for many years and it is wonderful to learn how clever and creative personalieties these birds can be.

@ct_bergstrom I used to feed crows a lot but moved where I don't feel able to do so. When a Native American man I knew called Little Crow died I was unable to go to Minnesota for his memorial.

@ct_bergstrom My 2023 goal!

@ct_bergstrom Not really friends, they know I don't harm them. Sometimes/ often they play with me while with pocket cam on my way. Damn intelligent cute mess on two feet! 😂 😂 Thank you so much for this photo!!

@ct_bergstrom Ok now I’m inspired to introduce myself to the 4 crows that live near me. I’ve been watching them chase off the incredibly fat & resourceful squirrels that pilfer from the bird feeder. They are the only ones who can intimidate the squirrels, & they’re so well-organized!

@ct_bergstrom Lovely thread. We had a pair of magpies nesting in our urban back yard once. If it happens again I will try peanuts.

@ct_bergstrom Everything you've said here is why I've been making an effort to become known to the local crows as The Human With Almonds. Never a whole lot at any given time, but enough for everyone in the flock to get a piece of one. They're beautiful, smart birds and watching their antics has gotten me through so many rough days.

@ct_bergstrom For some years now I am wondering what‘s going on in late autumn and spring. There are always extremely large gatherings (guess some hundreds of crows) on very high rooftops. They sit in groups with some birds flying around. What are they doing? Is it kind of a survey thing? Some kind of conference?

@ct_bergstrom so cute! Thank you for this explanation, I will absolutely try it at home!

@ct_bergstrom I like this thread a lot. I need some corvid friends! I need to train my dogs to not go berserk when they fly low at home though.

@ct_bergstrom how do you tell them apart?

what should i look out for to identify which crow is which if there are many?

@ct_bergstrom
Thank you for this! I'm obsessed with the ravens and crows in my neighborhood and appreciate their presence so much.

Wasnt the study about crow facial recognition and passing down generational information done at UW?

@ct_bergstrom

Hi Carl, what a very lovely and entertaining series.

As a thank you, here are some pics of "mine", Lady Guuzi-Bird and Mr. Guuzi-Bird (means treaty-bird for the treats - and it's also the call I use which they respond to).

They just LEURVE that cat food variety: "with venison" 😁

@ct_bergstrom

Can you pet them ?

@ct_bergstrom Thanks for this. Wanted to try out befriending the crows in my neighbourhood for quite some time already. I always enjoy watching them watching us :) Now I have a new year's resolution.

@ct_bergstrom Wonderful thread, a joy to read on Christmas morning, thank you. We have lots of jackdaws in our street, they roost in the trees and nest (and raise their young every year) in the old chimneys and I love them. Peanuts in shells will be on the next shopping list!

@ct_bergstrom could this work with magpies? Lovely guide!

@ct_bergstrom Wonderful thread. This is the local gang. There's quite a few but they only gather in such numbers when it's too dark to get a good shot

@ct_bergstrom this is wonderful. We have a little dog who likes to chase the local crows but they soon worked out the double-back and follow manoeuvre and started playing with her… clearly that have more brains than she does!

@ct_bergstrom this is such a great thread. I love feeding and watching the birds around my house. They took their time warming up to me, but it was so rewarding once they did that I couldn't even be mad when they ate all my sunflowers. This really makes me want a crow friend 🥺

@ct_bergstrom now I need to befriend crows

@ct_bergstrom I'd like it so much, but in the countryside, they don't approach...
Do you think it could be easy with magpies?

@ct_bergstrom one thing I read maybe on nextdoor(!) is that of you feed them etc they will then attack other people or drop stuff on them to defend you!

@ct_bergstrom Hey, another crow fan here
I myself do not have any stories, but a friend of mine was once taking care of a jackdaw with a broken wing, she found in her garden.
The bird lived with her while she fed it and made sure the wing heals properly.
Once the wing and it's owner were in a good shape she set the bird free and off it flew...
But since then, every morning my friend was finding gifts from this jackdaw on her pillow :-) small worms, nuts, etc :-)

@ct_bergstrom Thank you so much!
The local crows are currently calling from a tree opposite my window to get my attention and more walnuts.

Here is a video of one of them who picks up nuts from my hand.
#krähenContent #crow

@ct_bergstrom I love this thread! Thank you

Thank you @ct_bergstrom
There are a few crows in my area, and befriending them has been on my mind for a while, but I didn’t know where to start. Now I do! ❤️

@ct_bergstrom that was a wonderful thread! Loved all the photos of those beautiful critters ♥️

@ct_bergstrom I had made a few crow friends but my mother scared me by saying that they get angry and can poke my eyes out if i piss them off. so I stopped feeding them. but I so wish to befriend them! they are so easily hated, I never understood why.

@ct_bergstrom what's app. This was a great thread. My daughter works in Olympia and has a group of crow friends. They come to the door looking for her most days.

@ct_bergstrom We also have two raven crows that come to us every day, Carla and Bruni. They sit in the tree in front of the kitchen window or sit directly on the windowsill and look curiously inside. Of course, there are always treats such as walnuts or salt-free sausages. They react to their names and our voices and are very excited when the kitchen window opens. They also call each other and defend their "snack bar" against other interested parties...
https://youtu.be/7Gp-zsXptxw

@ct_bergstrom my grandmother watched a crow she named Cassius for years out on her farm in North Dakota. I don’t know much about her interaction with Cassius, but I do know she was rather fond of that bird.

@ct_bergstrom thank you so much for this thread. Having read it, I feel I’ve now joined a spirited band of both novice and expert crow enthusiasts. My New Year’s Resolution is to befriend the crows on my rural property here in eastern Canada. Please feel free to hold me to it.

@ct_bergstrom right goal for the new year make friends with the crows

@ct_bergstrom So many lovely photos!

One important thing is missing, though: How do you get their attention at the very start? Once a crow knows I *might* provide food, I'm pretty confident I can build that relationship. But currently they just fly overhead on their way from point A to point B. Do I need to find where they're already congregating and feeding, then?

@ct_bergstrom I've read this as I've watched my crow friends eating outside on a very cold day here in Southwest Virginia. In my experience, it takes about 2 years to get the local crows here to get to know you - and, yes, rural crows are more shy than the ones in the suburbs.

@ct_bergstrom my worry in Japan is that my neighbors will be upset about it and I’ll end up getting the crows hurt or killed

@ct_bergstrom I could not love this thread more. Crows became my favorite bird when a flock of them laughed at me after I cramped up on a track run. 😂

@ct_bergstrom Should it be said that one should be careful to not feed them too much because it could make them, and their young, dependent in you as a food source and it can harm them if you happen to be out for a certain period of time? Or is that not a concern?

@ct_bergstrom Thanks Carl! Happy Holidays!

@ct_bergstrom Thank for this thread. I adore crows for their beauty and intelligence. I'll also capture images when possible.

I've drafted (not published) an entire fantasy series of 7 novels & one of the characters, introduced in Book2, is Mazatta the crow. He has limited speech (not far from the truth), his origins murky. He saves a character, her relationship with him revealing she's worthy of redemption.

@ct_bergstrom Absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing thread, and all the wonderful pics!

@ct_bergstrom
I am so going to try this

@ct_bergstrom Amazing. I loved this thread.
No crows around here to become my friends. However, I have other neighbors in the woods behind my backyard walls. Some time ago, a papaya tree grew inside, where I throw plant remains on the soil to be composted, attracting toucans, tanagers and marmosets that come to feed on the fruits. Close enough to get really detailed photos.
Happy Holidays.

@ct_bergstrom

Awhile back I noticed a bunch of crows following this witchy (Wiccan?) looking girl walking down the street in cap hill.

This was in sharp contrast to how they would surveil me (they are sworn enemies of my favorite orange cat, who I also take for walks).

Now I walk around with a pocket full of walnuts and people think *I’m* the level five witch. 😅

@ct_bergstrom A couple of years ago I made friends with a couple of juvenile Australian ravens. Eventually they moved on and there are a couple of juveniles around again this year but they have been a bit too skittish to feed. The parents tend not to come into our yard, so I’ve never had a chance to attempt to feed them.

@ct_bergstrom I fed my neighborhood crows raw unsalted peanuts for a time. Once, when I was outside in my front yard, a crow was making warning calls at a car parked across the street. I saw what I thought was a bunny underneath the vehicle, and I looked closer. Yes, it was a feral bunny from the empty lot. Then I looked at the other side of the car and there was a large, black feral cat watching the bunny. The crow was warning the bunny, me, and whomever of the danger

@ct_bergstrom @flamingpotholder has a pair of friends at Lincoln Park, Chuck and his murder-mate Rosie. Chuck can catch peanuts out of the air. He’s quite brilliant.

Thank you all so much for the enthusiasm and support and for the crow stories you've shared. If I haven't had a chance to respond yet, I apologize.

There's a quite curious coda to this entire thread that I'm eager to share with you. But first, a couple of things that I forgot to mention in the previous thread that you may useful in befriending crows.

@ct_bergstrom I don't have crows, but there's an unkindness of ravens that enjoy the seed in the bird feeder.

@ct_bergstrom presumably, these lessons also apply to Jackdaws (one of my favourite birds, with similar traits)?

@ct_bergstrom Thank you for this thread! I love ravens and their cousin crows. There's something magical about ravens' aerial acrobatics, and listening to ravens and crows "talk" to each other is special. I've never attempted to befriend a crow, but this inspires me to try in 2023!

@ct_bergstrom I'm definitely going to attempt this with the crows in my local park! Thanks for the guide!

@ct_bergstrom Thanks for the thread 🖤 This large-billed crow would surely like to join me and thank you for the peanuts eaten today 😊
#Cawmunity #Crows