Very clever Crow

And who says that birds are stupid anyway?
The Corvids are a large family composed of the crows and jays, plus close relatives like magpies, treepies, nutcrackers and choughs. They are the largest songs birds on earth. They are considered the most intelligent of the birds, and among the most intelligent of all animals. Having demostrated self awarness in mirror test's(European magpies) and tool making ability (crow's, rooks). The brain-to-body weight ratios of corvid brains are among the largest in birds, equal to that of, great apes and cetaceas, and only slightly lower than in a human. Their intelligence is boosted by the long growing period of the young. By remaining with the parents, the young have more opportunities to learn necessary skills. When compared to dogs and cats in an experiment testing the ability to seek out food according to three-dimensional clues, corvids out-performed the mammals. A metaanalysis testing how often birds invented new ways to acquire food in the wild found corvids the most innovative birds. A 2004 review suggests that their cognitive abilities are on par with those of great apes. Despite structural differences, the brains of corvids and great apes both evolved the ability to make geometrical measurements. One Carrion Crow was documented to crack nuts by placing them on a crosswalk, letting the passing cars crack the shell, waiting for the light to turn red, and then safely retrieving the contents. A group of crows in England took turns lifting garbage bin lids while their companions collected food. Members of the corvid family have been known to watch other birds, remember where they hide their food, then return once the owner leaves. Corvids also move their food around between hiding places to avoid thievery, but only if they have previously been thieves themselves i.e., they remember previous relevant social contexts, use their own experience of having been a thief to predict the behavior of a pilferer, and can determine the safest course to protect their caches from being pilfered. The ability to hide food requires highly accurate spatial memories. Corvids have been recorded to recall their food's hiding place up to nine months later. There has also been evidence that Western Scrub-Jays, which store perishable foods, not only remember where they stored their food, but for how long. This has been compared to episodic memory, previously thought unique to humans.
I could go on with examples of their intelligence.

Sources; http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/corvids.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvidae

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[pefawa]

How true, ravens, crows, and jays are extremely smart birds. If you watch them long enough you can see their minds at work. Nice post Lesley.

[LesleytheBirdNerd]

@pefawa Thank you. They are very intelligent, I enjoy waching them.

[lilgrlkissesnhugs]

Wow crows are really intelligent.