5 ms·

I live in Tokyo, and and if I become a billionaire, the second thing I will do (after starting a thrash metal guitar university for girls) will be to commission

by veidr 8y ago

I live in Tokyo, and and if I become a billionaire, the second thing I will do (after starting a thrash metal guitar university for girls) will be to commission a Planet Earth II level documentary about the crows here. They are fucking HUGE, they own the city (especially on trash-collection days), and they can go really high. When I moved back here I stayed a few weeks in a hotel on the 53rd floor. There were no pigeons, or any other birds I could discern, other than the fucking murder of crows who owned the place. I now live on the top floor of a 9-story apartment building, and I am trying very hard to make friends with the two crows who have apparently successfully acquired the crow territorial rights to it, and live on the roof above me. Anecdotal evidence suggests they won't shit on your balcony, or try to peck the back of your head, if you do so. Also, as a child I lived in Bodega, California, and my house was featured in Hitchcock's The Birds. So I might be like, overcompensating a little...

yareally 8y ago
The University of Washington in conjunction with PBS did a documentary on the crows of Seattle. UW does quite a bit of research on the local (and quite abundant) subspecies of crow, so it's rather interesting. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-full-episode/5977/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-full-episod...
jschwartzi 8y ago
When a coworker and I were in Ginza we spent an hour or so wandering around Hamarikyu Gardens there. That was the first time I saw one of the Japanese crows. At first, I thought it was a raven, but it was brazen enough to land less than 6 feet away from me, and I got to see how big it actually was. It was taller than my knees. Crows in the Pacific Northwest have this delicate little "caw caw" that they make. It's sort of endearing to me because of the association with home. When this thing opened its beak it was no little bit unnerving to me. No small "caw" passed from its beak, but rather a sound proportional to the size of the thing. We backed away slowly.
- vram22 8y ago
  >It was taller than my knees. How tall in inches or centimeters?
  - jschwartzi 8y ago
    Probably 28 inches or so.
    - blacksmith_tb 8y ago
      That seems very large. I went looking for photos of crows in Tokyo, this NPR article[1] has several. They do seem to have more impressive beaks than N. American crows... 1: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122291084?storyId=122291084 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122291...
      - jschwartzi 8y ago
        I could be overestimating. Regardless, it's an intimidating bird.
    - vram22 8y ago
      Wow, that's big - 2 and 1/3rd feet. The crows I see in cities in India seem to be not more than a foot or so in body length, and I've seen some from a few few away. But they can be aggressive when in groups (as in the sense of cawing more and flying around the person), if someone seems to threaten them by throwing or waving something at them. Never actually heard of a case of them pecking someone, but it could have happened. Just googled for such info and saw this: https://www.quora.com/Can-crows-attack-people https://www.quora.com/Can-crows-attack-people
blarg1 8y ago
Yeah here in Australia, the neighbourhood magpie is the meanest bird you'd ever seen. But we have been feeding it for years, and it hasn't bombed us in a long time... except sometimes it swoops over my shoulder hitting my head with its wing tip. I'm still on alert during bombing season. Also it still bombs my mum, it hates Asians.
- danenania 8y ago
  Not to mention the ibises (waste high scavengers with long curved black beaks and no fear of humans) or the giant bats that swoop by your head at night.
ics 8y ago
You might be interested in a film called “Tokyo Waka”. The filmmakers call it a visual poem but it’s essentially a glimpse of Tokyo through people’s experience with the crowd.
- ics 8y ago
  Oops, crowd -> crows. It's about the crows.
sandworm101 8y ago
>> They are fucking HUGE Then you wouldn't like the "crows" near my house: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C8cVvmw3vGI/VYdRFu0_VSI/AAAAAAAADfA/bmliyBGNMJ8/s1600/crow_vs_raven.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C8cVvmw3vGI/VYdRFu0_VSI/AAAAAAAADf...
cwkoss 8y ago
> Anecdotal evidence suggests they won't shit on your balcony, or try to peck the back of your head, if you do so. Haha, this sounds like quite the protection racket. "Sure would be a shame if... someone pooped on your balcony!" I was able to train the wild city-crows to stand on a certain part of my fence to receive unsalted mixed nuts. Cashews are like crack to them.
neverminder 8y ago
When I was a kid I went on a vacation with my family to a cabin by a lake. A man living in nearby had a pet crow. The crow would get cosy around our dining table outside trying to grab some food, so my mother chased it away once. After that for the next 2 weeks we stayed there whenever my mother would hang laundry to dry outside the crow would fly over and take a shit on my mother's clothes. There were 5 people in the family, but the crow would somehow always pick my mother's clothes. It was fascinating for me, that the bird was as intelligent as it was vengeful. This is a true story.
- ams6110 8y ago
  Corvidae are smart, and seem to have good memory. I've heard that a good way to keep them away is to kill one, and hang up the corpse on display. Others will stay away.
  - neverminder 8y ago
    They are smart indeed. Apparently they can remember faces (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html) and colors (https://phys.org/news/2011-12-crows-colours-year-japanese.html https://phys.org/news/2011-12-crows-colours-year-japanese.ht...) which is how I'm guessing the crow I've encountered knew which clothes specifically to take a dump on. Really fascinating stuff.
  - adventured 8y ago
    A large murder of crows had become a problem near where I live. The group seemed to get larger by the year. They'd turn clusters of trees black, and were incredibly loud. During a certain time of year when they showed up, they'd terrorize areas with vast amounts of shit. The local government poisoned a bunch of them (took several years to get approval). The crows got the hint and never came back again.

by veidr 8y ago

yareally 8y ago

The University of Washington in conjunction with PBS did a documentary on the crows of Seattle. UW does quite a bit of research on the local (and quite abundant) subspecies of crow, so it's rather interesting. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-full-episode/5977/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-full-episod...

jschwartzi 8y ago

When a coworker and I were in Ginza we spent an hour or so wandering around Hamarikyu Gardens there. That was the first time I saw one of the Japanese crows. At first, I thought it was a raven, but it was brazen enough to land less than 6 feet away from me, and I got to see how big it actually was. It was taller than my knees. Crows in the Pacific Northwest have this delicate little "caw caw" that they make. It's sort of endearing to me because of the association with home. When this thing opened its beak it was no little bit unnerving to me. No small "caw" passed from its beak, but rather a sound proportional to the size of the thing. We backed away slowly.

vram22 8y ago
>It was taller than my knees. How tall in inches or centimeters?
- jschwartzi 8y ago
  Probably 28 inches or so.
  - blacksmith_tb 8y ago
    That seems very large. I went looking for photos of crows in Tokyo, this NPR article[1] has several. They do seem to have more impressive beaks than N. American crows... 1: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122291084?storyId=122291084 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122291...
    - jschwartzi 8y ago
      I could be overestimating. Regardless, it's an intimidating bird.
  - vram22 8y ago
    Wow, that's big - 2 and 1/3rd feet. The crows I see in cities in India seem to be not more than a foot or so in body length, and I've seen some from a few few away. But they can be aggressive when in groups (as in the sense of cawing more and flying around the person), if someone seems to threaten them by throwing or waving something at them. Never actually heard of a case of them pecking someone, but it could have happened. Just googled for such info and saw this: https://www.quora.com/Can-crows-attack-people https://www.quora.com/Can-crows-attack-people

blarg1 8y ago

Yeah here in Australia, the neighbourhood magpie is the meanest bird you'd ever seen. But we have been feeding it for years, and it hasn't bombed us in a long time... except sometimes it swoops over my shoulder hitting my head with its wing tip. I'm still on alert during bombing season. Also it still bombs my mum, it hates Asians.

danenania 8y ago
Not to mention the ibises (waste high scavengers with long curved black beaks and no fear of humans) or the giant bats that swoop by your head at night.

ics 8y ago

You might be interested in a film called “Tokyo Waka”. The filmmakers call it a visual poem but it’s essentially a glimpse of Tokyo through people’s experience with the crowd.

ics 8y ago
Oops, crowd -> crows. It's about the crows.

sandworm101 8y ago

>> They are fucking HUGE Then you wouldn't like the "crows" near my house: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C8cVvmw3vGI/VYdRFu0_VSI/AAAAAAAADfA/bmliyBGNMJ8/s1600/crow_vs_raven.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C8cVvmw3vGI/VYdRFu0_VSI/AAAAAAAADf...

cwkoss 8y ago

> Anecdotal evidence suggests they won't shit on your balcony, or try to peck the back of your head, if you do so. Haha, this sounds like quite the protection racket. "Sure would be a shame if... someone pooped on your balcony!" I was able to train the wild city-crows to stand on a certain part of my fence to receive unsalted mixed nuts. Cashews are like crack to them.

neverminder 8y ago

When I was a kid I went on a vacation with my family to a cabin by a lake. A man living in nearby had a pet crow. The crow would get cosy around our dining table outside trying to grab some food, so my mother chased it away once. After that for the next 2 weeks we stayed there whenever my mother would hang laundry to dry outside the crow would fly over and take a shit on my mother's clothes. There were 5 people in the family, but the crow would somehow always pick my mother's clothes. It was fascinating for me, that the bird was as intelligent as it was vengeful. This is a true story.

ams6110 8y ago
Corvidae are smart, and seem to have good memory. I've heard that a good way to keep them away is to kill one, and hang up the corpse on display. Others will stay away.
- neverminder 8y ago
  They are smart indeed. Apparently they can remember faces (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html) and colors (https://phys.org/news/2011-12-crows-colours-year-japanese.html https://phys.org/news/2011-12-crows-colours-year-japanese.ht...) which is how I'm guessing the crow I've encountered knew which clothes specifically to take a dump on. Really fascinating stuff.
- adventured 8y ago
  A large murder of crows had become a problem near where I live. The group seemed to get larger by the year. They'd turn clusters of trees black, and were incredibly loud. During a certain time of year when they showed up, they'd terrorize areas with vast amounts of shit. The local government poisoned a bunch of them (took several years to get approval). The crows got the hint and never came back again.