Clever corvids

By Charlotte Owen

Crows are among the cleverest of birds and can out-perform the average seven-year-old. When scientists recreated the scenario in Aesop’s fable, where a thirsty crow drops pebbles into a half-empty jug to raise the water level, the crows aced it but the under-sevens consistently failed. Problem solving is a corvid speciality. Betty the New Caledonian crow blew minds in 2002 when she seemingly solved a complex problem on the fly, by bending a piece of wire into a hooked tool to access otherwise-unreachable food. Years later, scientists realised that wild crows did this all the time, bending twigs to hook out grubs from trees. Betty was just applying her natural intelligence, knowledge and experience to a new situation – undeniably clever.

Our own native crows are problems solvers too, and food is usually the motivator. Why struggle with a hanging fat-ball feeder when you can remove it from its post to eat more easily on the floor? If a human wires the feeder in place so it’s impossible to remove, simply change tactics. By perching above the hanging feeder, you can pull it up with your beak then hold it in place with one foot while feasting on the fat within. In France, crows have even been trained to pick up litter, receiving a nugget of food for each item deposited in a special bin. Perhaps that’s demeaning work in light of the most recent discovery in avian intelligence: crows know what they know, and can analyse their own thoughts. This is a form of consciousness and higher intelligence once thought unique to humans, but it’s clear that a wise old crow could still teach us a thing or two - and these brainy birds are far from bird-brained.