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They become very revengeful and aggressive if you have ever disturbed their nest. When I was young I just threw a small stone at one of the nests near my home (

They become very revengeful and aggressive if you have ever disturbed their nest. When I was young I just threw a small stone at one of the nests near my home (for fun not to harm). From then on, for several years, they seem to recognize me everytime I go out of the house and call their gang to swoop on me. I stopped going to my terrace just because of that. After may be 10+ years or so it stopped. Later I was stunned to read that Crows remember your face and can communicate your face to other Crows[1]. Thats how they can detect you for several miles in radius. [1] https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remember-your-face-2121 https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remem...

kaybe 5y ago
I really wonder what they think of me shooing them from the nests of smaller birds in the garden. (A futile endeavor, I fear, since I cannot be there all day.) It probably destroys all chances of having a good relationship.. too bad.
throwanem 5y ago
I inadvertently encroached on a crows' nest with a young chick in it, one time while I was out taking pictures on a break at work. The chick called out in alarm, and the parents weren't far away. Then and after, whenever I left the building with my camera in hand, they made low passes and warning calls until I went back inside - but only when I had my camera. This kept up for days, including after a weekend when I wasn't at work, until it occurred to me to try a peace offering of potato chips from the vending machine - not the healthiest food for anyone, but the best it had to offer, and I had nothing else really to work with. After a few days of emptying a bag of chips on the grassy verge opposite the parking lot, and of conscientiously not approaching the nest again, the warning calls and surveillance flights ceased, and the crows never had a problem with me again. I'd read previously about corvids' intelligence, but that they should have such an extensive and accurate theory of mind, for animals with whom they have so little in common, still surprised me. Hell, for all that we flatter ourselves we invented the concepts, I've known plenty of humans who grasped impropriety, apology, restitution, and forgiveness less well than those birds did.

kaybe 5y ago

I really wonder what they think of me shooing them from the nests of smaller birds in the garden. (A futile endeavor, I fear, since I cannot be there all day.) It probably destroys all chances of having a good relationship.. too bad.

throwanem 5y ago

I inadvertently encroached on a crows' nest with a young chick in it, one time while I was out taking pictures on a break at work. The chick called out in alarm, and the parents weren't far away. Then and after, whenever I left the building with my camera in hand, they made low passes and warning calls until I went back inside - but only when I had my camera. This kept up for days, including after a weekend when I wasn't at work, until it occurred to me to try a peace offering of potato chips from the vending machine - not the healthiest food for anyone, but the best it had to offer, and I had nothing else really to work with. After a few days of emptying a bag of chips on the grassy verge opposite the parking lot, and of conscientiously not approaching the nest again, the warning calls and surveillance flights ceased, and the crows never had a problem with me again. I'd read previously about corvids' intelligence, but that they should have such an extensive and accurate theory of mind, for animals with whom they have so little in common, still surprised me. Hell, for all that we flatter ourselves we invented the concepts, I've known plenty of humans who grasped impropriety, apology, restitution, and forgiveness less well than those birds did.