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Ok, I need some crow content in my life right now. You probably do too. Let them enchant you for the next 3min.
1. It’s the breeding season right now which means baby crows will be, or are already on the loose depending on where you live. It’s okay if they can’t fly-that’s normal! Their parents still care for them. You can recognize them by their blue eyes. Bill turns black fast tho. 
2. Once the babies reach independence they will leave the territory to make it on their own, but some, especially sons, will stay on as “helpers”. We don’t really understand why, but breeding females with helpers raise more offspring over their lives than those without.
3. Although many Westerners perceive crows as omens of darkness/death that’s not their reputation throughout most of the world. Instead, most human cultures associate them with wisdom, longevity, or perceive them as divine creators. Painting by Kawanabe Kyosai 1880’s
4. While this one is not scientifically backed, lots of people share with me that having crows around protects their chickens. I don’t think they do it out of the goodness of their heart but I do think it’s in the best interest of small-scale chicken farmers to attract crows.
The motivation for the crows is probably that they share a lot of the same predators with chickens. So having crows around means you have a ready-made predator watcher that comes equipped to drive them off.
5. Like many birds, crows groom their partners to reinforce their bonds. These bonds can last over 15 years for the luckiest pairs.
6. Crows love to play. I once watched a wild crow repeatedly drop a ball just so it could fly down and catch it juuuust before it hit the ground. They also wind surf, play tug of war, pick on their siblings and play in the snow...
7. New Caledonian crows can imagine a sequence of steps, and then correctly put them together to solve a problem. Sometimes I can barely do that. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
8. Crows can learn to talk. In 1964 a talking crow used the phrase “here boy” to round up neighborhood dogs before bringing them to the University of Montana campus.
9. Earlier this year a paper came out about a house crow that laid an “immaculate blue egg.” Normally their eggs are bluish green with brown spots. I know this won’t change the world. But it’s nice to be reminded that such attention and curiosity abt the natural world exists.
10. Ok this is a pretty big one. For the first time in 20 YEARS a pair of ‘Alalās, or Hawaiian crows, are building a nest. These birds were declared extinct in the wild in 2002. dlnr.hawaii.gov/alalaproject/2…
THIS IS HUGE! This may be the only other tool making crow on the planet. They help regenerate native Hawaiian forests. They’re part of the ecological and cultural identity of the Big Island. This is the result of decades of intensive conservation efforts.
Literally everything about this moment is incredible and it’s really giving me life right now. There is soooo much work left to do and one nest does not a conservation success story make but like it’s /something/ and we all need a little something right now. So take heart.
Ok, that’s what I’ve got for now. Feel free to enhance this thread with your own stories of these lovely birbs.
Oh. And as a special announcement just to round things out...a full size GO will be available starting Monday, as will the entire Corvid Research sticker collection. Happy Friday.
