David B. 1d ago
#CrowUpdate I don't see the #crows from my window much these days, but it could be because they're busy building the nest, and if it is where I think it is (not 100% sure yet) it's more convenient for them to fly behind my house rather than in front of my house (I got spoiled last year with a direct view to the nest from my window), but every time I spend some time in the park, they eventually show up. Some trouble yesterday. The south crows came next to my house again and 🧵 ⤵️
Show threadDavid B. 1d ago
woke me up from my nap! Interestingly, while they're scared of me when I'm in the street, they're not impressed when I'm on my balcony (despite being higher, so technically closer to them, I guess they know I can't approach them from there). It's concerning because why are they trying to challenge "my" crows right now? Shouldn't they be busy building a nest too? (although, I think last year, they built one later, in April, as a reminder they're a different species of crow).
Weirdly, ⤵️
Show threadDavid B. 

Weirdly, you would assume that they'd be discreet when they're in someone else's territory, but no, they were super loud for some reason (or are they trying to claim it this way?). And very soon, Mr and Ms Crow showed up and Mr Crow slammed into one of the South Crows again. It's always very impressive (it went too fast, I couldn't film or anything).

I didn't keep track of what happened after (the South Crows fled, though), but later in the afternoon I went to the park. ⤵️

Mar 22 at 3:29amWeb
Show threadDavid B. 1d ago

I was a bit worried about Mr Crow, as this is how I think he usually he injures himself, but both Mr and Ms Crow were fine. First I gave them a peanut the way I always do, then, in order to try to tame them a little more, I tried something new. I left several peanuts (not just one or two) on a bench, and I left them on the side that was closest to me. And... I filmed!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AnrVI28e2bI

As you see, Mr Crow didn't dare to grab them. They were just too close. ⤵️

#CrowUpdate #Crows

Mr Crow wants those peanuts but they're still a little too close to me for comfort. #crow

YouTube
Show threadDavid B. 23h ago

Two side notes about the video. I wish I could post it on #Loops instead of Youtube, but Loops will still crash every single time I try to post a video. I wish that was fixed one day (@dansup if you read this.).

Also for French speakers: Oui, vous avez bien entendu "M. Corbeau" à la fin, pas "M. Corneille." Je peux expliquer (mais plus tard )

Back to our crows.

⤵️

Show threadDavid B. 23h ago

Soon after the end of the video above, Ms Crow approached and landed on the bench! I was very surprised, as she usually wants nothing to do with this "getting close to the human" nonsense.

However, I did notice she was a bit more comfortable being close to me lately. But as soon as I tried to take a picture, she flew away. I could get that gif, though.

That's all for now.

#CrowUpdate

Show threadpandabutter19h ago
@David Interesting that they can distinguish languages! They really are very smart. You've mentioned that crows are generally disliked in Japan, so I wonder if they thought "foreigner = less unfriendly", or something like that—or maybe they were just curious about the human making new/different noises? Curiosity (and boredom!) do go hand-in-hand with intelligence.
Show threadDavid B. 19h ago

@pandabutter I don't know the details, but research has been done on carrion crows and they can tell when a human speaks a different language than the one they're used to hear.

With that being said, they got curious about me at first because I was actually speaking to them whereas 99% of humans around them simply ignores them. And for the befriending part, there is only one method: food. 😉

Crows are curious but also very neophobe. Any unknown thing is deemed "unsafe until proven otherwise."

Show threadDavid B. 19h ago
@pandabutter After three years, Ms Crow still doesn't like getting near me. However, I suspect that "my" crows have had bad encounters with humans before. The "crows by the sea" (at least the one that died, sadly) are much less fearful, and if I saw them as regularly as "my" crows, I'm sure they wouldn't be scared of me at all.
Show threadpandabutter19h ago
@David And it's a good point that recognizing different languages isn't the same as *understanding*. My mom once encountered a pet raven in a park that had learned to say a couple words, and it didn't necessarily understand them—it just knew that making the sounds "Hello there!" from high up in a tree caused nearby humans to look around frantically, in a way it clearly found amusing!
Show threadDavid B. 18h ago

@pandabutter Ravens are so awesome for this.

I think carrion crows have the capacity to imitate sounds, but have little to no interest in doing it (at least not the Japanese ones)