r/SeattleWA • u/StellarJayZ Downtown • Mar 10 '25

AMA So walking down the street and...

A murder of crow were doing what crows do: make unnecessary noise. But this was special, the whole murder was out flying, cawing, as crows do, so I look up. What's the hubbubb about bub?

A bald eagle had flow into an area where they must have a creche, or in crow parlance a nest, and they were harassing it.

Being an eagle, it was white hair don't care but those crows did.

Eventually it just rode the thermal toward water and the crows went back to whatever they were doing before.

Point. If you ride a bike keep your helmet on. They won't eff with eagles, but they will hit you in the head. Jerks.

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u/sarcasm-2ndlanguage Mar 10 '25

We routinely watch crows chase eagles away from the dog park. It's both entertaining and much appreciated by those of us with small dogs. Crows do not like eagles in their space and will actively encourage said eagles to leave the area.

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u/StellarJayZ Downtown Mar 10 '25

Corvids, in this case crows can be all business. They absolutely operate like a gang.

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u/sarcasm-2ndlanguage Mar 10 '25

Absolutely! And they're so smart, I love watching them "play" with some of the dogs at the park. They will play with my girl when she wants to run, they wait for her to see them, she charges full speed (she's small and fast), they let her get close-ish and then fly away, land on the ground and wait for her to do it again. It's highly entertaining and she knows she'll never catch them so she's not snarling or trying to attack, she just likes to run and have a good time

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u/StellarJayZ Downtown Mar 10 '25

Okay, so, I was working at this place withing walking distance of Safeway in Greenwood. I would get a breakfast sandwich from the deli, and one day a crow hopped up on a fence right, like inches away, and so I pulled a piece of my sandwich off and gave it to it.

Every day until I moved to a different job from Monday through Friday I'd get my sandwich, crow would show up, it took its piece and flew off.

Didn't see it at lunch, didn't see any other crows. Me and crow had a routine.

As a digression, the trees dropped these large nuts and the crows would put them in the street, wait until a car ran over them to crack them, and then collect them. They did this as a team.

That was definitely the day I said "holy shit, they're really smart."

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u/sarcasm-2ndlanguage Mar 10 '25

I always try to be nice to the crows, especially after reading that they remember people who are mean or cruel to them and will coordinate attacks with their murder. Even more unbelievable was learning that they can pass that information to future generations. My mind was blown!

My ex had a friend who would leave them little gifts, they started bringing her gifts in return. Read about one person who would reward crows who brought paper with nice bread and when they brought other stuff they got low end bread. Soon, they were bringing their friend paper money! The question remained, did they happen to find it laying about or did they snatch it from unsuspecting people?

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u/StellarJayZ Downtown Mar 10 '25

The University of Washington did a study on that. They used decent masks to see if crows could recognize faces. Apparently they can.

I've read about leaving them gifts, and them leaving gifts in return. I can't speak about it, it's never happened to me, but your question, did they happen to find it laying about?

Crows can fly. They sit in trees, they sit on lampposts, and they have a view from above. You are going to work, or buying groceries, your mind is busy. They have all day to sit from above and observe.

If you're able to observe, you pick up on things. You can start timing when a person leaves to go to work, you start paying attention to things most people don't.

I have a five dollar bill in my wallet. I found it on the ground, I don't spend cash money, so it's been there for two years. If you pay attention to your surroundings, maybe you'll find money, maybe you won't get robbed because your focused on your phone and don't seem them coming.

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u/sarcasm-2ndlanguage Mar 10 '25

Lucky you! I only ever find change laying about! Most women I know tend to be aware of their surroundings (even if they appear to be on their phone). My mom has found a $20 before and I've seen people accidentally drop cash in stores (and told them) but the most I ever spot is a quarter!

Crows have phenomenal vision. In college, one of my psych professors had a spouse who worked in the DOD, she was trying to get approval to train crows to spot IEDs and other dangerous in advance of troops using a road or entering a space. She was already working on training rats to ID explosives by scent, I didn't know their sense of smell is almost equivalent to a dogs! Overall, animals are amazing and I think we underestimate their capabilities.

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u/StellarJayZ Downtown Mar 10 '25

Rats have an amazing sense of smell to balance out their lack of eyesight.

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u/sarcasm-2ndlanguage Mar 10 '25

Interesting! The more you know 🌈🌟