# How intelligent are crows ?



## mikeuk (Feb 1, 2012)

Hi guys, being a beginner to slingshot hunting, On my daily dogs walks I have taken to carrying my pocket Poacher along in the hope of a shot.
The reason is that in a certain spot there is a crow distinctive by some white patches on his wings always there, he walks around the grass and the dog young and inexperienced starts to give chase. The crow waits till the last minute and flies into nearby tree and proceeds to taunt the dog from safety.
Last week I took the slingshot and as soon as he was in the tree, I took my shot. The 12mm lead just clipped his wing and he flew away. Every day since, though I see others with dogs pass close by him, now, as soon as my dog and me are within 50 yards he is gone.
Is it possible this bird recognizes us from his near miss ?


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## XxDollarBillxX (Apr 28, 2011)

Crows are very smart indeed. it wouldnt suprize me that he is avoiding you..


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## Wingshooter (Dec 24, 2009)

Crows can tell people apart. Very smart.


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

theres a thread about this on the forum already, i just cant remember where. hopefully a mod will point/link it out to you .


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

Link : Hunting Crows


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## pop shot (Sep 29, 2011)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html?_r=1

A study on crow's facial recognition


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## mikeuk (Feb 1, 2012)

Thanks guys, seems there's no doubt ai'm on that crows bad boys list.


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## Grizz827 (Jan 18, 2012)

Crows are wicked smart dont be suprized if/when he rats you out to other crows in the area. If you want to get him you'll need to change up things leave the dog at home if you wear a hat take it off barrow a different dog come in from another way. you'll only get one chance good luck.


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## WoodsRunner (Feb 26, 2012)

they rival the inteligence of the great apes according to a PBS special i watched a few weeks ago.


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## Btoon84 (Nov 22, 2011)

crows are awesomely smart birds. another underrated smarty is the pigeon.


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## tnflipper52 (Jan 26, 2012)

Stepped out the back door yesterday. Two crows in a tree 40 yards away. Pulled out the slingshot just to make a scattering shot. I swear as soon as they say the slingshot rise up, they flew. I suppose they can determin a humans body language and know when to scoot. Sounds like they were cussin' me in crow as they flew away. Smart ones these crows.


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## Tomislav (Jan 24, 2012)

very intelligent, in some radius of 100 km where i live you have a guy that loves nature and everthing in it, i read his forum about it, mainly its survivor and nature stuff. He trained foxes, grey crowes, marten like his pets, hawks, buzzards, sparowhawks for hunting with licence, and many more animals i think. He and his crow was actors in a popular comedy TV show here in my country.

i will quote his word translated with google translator:

"It all began ten years ago with the first gray crow, it was necessary to bring down the tree where there was a nest, crows are stealing our day 30 eggs of wild ducks and chickens on the ranch!
Such criminals should have been eliminated to protect our birds!
All crows are completed in a soup, a delicacy rights from time immemorial, but their liver should be avoided because they can be poisoned!
The most tame crow who yawned first seeking food and took myself to see the home of whether the tame

The bird proved to be excellent! The whole day was with us and a perfect fit as a family member.
Crows are the most intelligent birds, but the hatch without any knowledge, all have to learn a tremendously fast learners! One can not think abstractly, which means that they believe what they see in it and believed in what they know it!
This is called imprinting, there is food-print, largely associated with the old bird food with you, social-print when the bird is known that different species from us, but we accepted as part of a "mixed flocks"
Such a bird is nearly impossible to lose because they can not be separated from his human flock!


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

A Crow was one of the most amazing pets I ever had. She was very intelligent and learned to say maybe 40 words very clearly. She knew what time I got off of work and came to meet me. She helped mom pull weeds and knew the difference between weeds and moms flowers. She pulled clothes pins from the clothes line when mad at mom. She was free to come and go as she pleased, but stayed with us untill I got married and moved away. Then she left also. I could tell a lot of other True stories about her. She was a amazing bird and if she had not been my companion for a few years I would not believe the things that she did. I hunted them before I had her, but never again after her. -- Tex


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## LBurnett (Feb 21, 2012)

Awesome story Tex!


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## mikeuk (Feb 1, 2012)

Tex-Shooter said:


> A Crow was one of the most amazing pets I ever had. She was very intelligent and learned to say maybe 40 words very clearly. She knew what time I got off of work and came to meet me. She helped mom pull weeds and knew the difference between weeds and moms flowers. She pulled clothes pins from the clothes line when mad at mom. She was free to come and go as she pleased, but stayed with us untill I got married and moved away. Then she left also. I could tell a lot of other True stories about her. She was a amazing bird and if she had not been my companion for a few years I would not believe the things that she did. I hunted them before I had her, but never again after her. -- Tex


That is a nice story Tex, made me feel quite guilty for taking a pot at it. Perhaps I'll lay off the Crows and stick to rabbits. If anyoned had a pet rabbit, I don't want to know LOL


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## LBurnett (Feb 21, 2012)

When my Dad was younger, a person along his road was giving away some rabbits as he did not have the space for them. Unfortunately no-one was willing to take the rabbits off his hands.. He then asked my dad who said 'yes I will have them'. The next day the man came round to ask how they were getting on.. My dad showed him round to the back garden to find that all the rabbits were hanging up. He made a bad decision giving them to him :/

Apparently they made a tasty meal! :L









Just a quick story!


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## josephlys (May 4, 2010)

LOL. What happened next. Now I'm interested


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## Jameslan (Feb 24, 2012)

not only crow, but also other birds are intelligent enough. Moreover, they can distriguish the actions of people. when anyone go passing them, they can know if the person will be dangerous. when you see them, they will prepare for flying. So I ofter suggest my friends not to see their eyes, unless you had prepared for shooting and they have no enough time to fly away. And some of the birds can see your eyes in 100 meters.


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## josephlys (May 4, 2010)

Yeah I pretend to walk past them as well. You know hide my devious intentions. Haha Lol. Then slowly raise my catty. However many still fly off as I prepare for the shot.


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## Jameslan (Feb 24, 2012)

josephlys said:


> Yeah I pretend to walk past them as well. You know hide my devious intentions. Haha Lol. Then slowly raise my catty. However many still fly off as I prepare for the shot.


I have a good way to shoot in not more than 1 second. many birds can be shooted before they have any reaction. 
The way is when you walk towards it and still far away from it, for example for 5~8 meters, you can raise your slingshot and pull the bands to aim. not aim at the birds, but the aclinic position 1~2 meters distance with the birds. so when you walk to 1~2 meters away with the birds, the shooting target move to the birds too. you can shoot at this moment. with less than half of a second, the ammo will on the birds.
the birds will care about actions of short distance, especially the sudden actions. I have shooted a lot of birds with this way.


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## Btoon84 (Nov 22, 2011)

good story tex. i was just thinking how cool it would be to have one as a pet. of course letting it come and go as it pleased would be ideal. the hard part would be getting it to stick around. did you get it at a young age and cage it for a little while and feed it or what?


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

A friend of my mine, John Henry, a little known Indian lore writer that discovered the old Tippecanoe fort with a metal detector, and his friend cut a nest of 3 crows out of the top of a tree with a 22 Hornet just when the young Crows were about to leave. He and another friend had to chase them around to catch them. They both keep one and gave me the other. I clipped one wing and halve of mine's tail feathers so she could not fly. I then feed her wieners that she loved and by the time that she could fly, she did not want to leave. She bonded with me very quickly because of the good food I think. After I left Mom and Dad's and she left also, I was back for a visit about a year later. We were sitting in the house when I heard her Caw and Hello. I went to the back porch and two crow heads were peering over the edge of the porch roof at me, her and the biggest male that I ever saw. He must have been someone's pet in the past also, because he also said hello. I took it that she wanted me to meet her friend and get a hand out, so I gave them a couple of 1/2 wieners. A crow can swallow 1/2 of a wiener whole. There were about 8 more crows in the top of some old oak trees about 60 yards off waiting for them. Jamie and her friend stayed there on the roof looking over at me for a little bit then returned to the rest of the crows and left. I figured that her big friend was the alpha male. -- Tex


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## Shadowslinger123 (Feb 5, 2012)

crows are extremely clever. there's a book on them I read- Corvus by Esther Woolfson. I wouldn't shoot them. too clever.


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## Berkshire bred (Mar 4, 2012)

they are incredibly intelligent and from my experience of hunting them with air rifles and slingshots they will not land if they realise that you are watching them so always look down wards when they are coming in to land.


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## Btoon84 (Nov 22, 2011)

wow tex, cool story.


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## slingshot_sniper (Feb 20, 2011)

Crows are indeed very smart and that's a good thing in my book,my hope is they continue to get smarter too

Like Tex I too had a pet crow his name was Jake,I'll not write a whole book on the subject but what I will write is out of 100 boys residing at the establishment I resided in,Jake was a far better friend than any of them and believe this or not if I got into a fight on the yard Jake would often swoop at my opponent and funnily enough it was enough for them to drop their guard for me to gain the upper hand....A true friend was Jake and testament that crows truly are great birds


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## mikeuk (Feb 1, 2012)

slingshot_sniper said:


> Crows are indeed very smart and that's a good thing in my book,my hope is they continue to get smarter too
> 
> Like Tex I too had a pet crow his name was Jake,I'll not write a whole book on the subject but what I will write is out of 100 boys residing at the establishment I resided in,Jake was a far better friend than any of them and believe this or not if I got into a fight on the yard Jake would often swoop at my opponent and funnily enough it was enough for them to drop their guard for me to gain the upper hand....A true friend was Jake and testament that crows truly are great birds


I have to say, the stories and comments on this thread have made me look at crows through new eyes.I have read up a bit, and have been watching how they behave when I'm out. One thing is sure, love them or hate them, they certainly seem to stir up emotions in people. I have found myself looking at them with new respect. Each must follow his own thoughts but personally, I will not be hunting crows any more.


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## slingshot_sniper (Feb 20, 2011)

mikeuk said:


> Crows are indeed very smart and that's a good thing in my book,my hope is they continue to get smarter too
> 
> Like Tex I too had a pet crow his name was Jake,I'll not write a whole book on the subject but what I will write is out of 100 boys residing at the establishment I resided in,Jake was a far better friend than any of them and believe this or not if I got into a fight on the yard Jake would often swoop at my opponent and funnily enough it was enough for them to drop their guard for me to gain the upper hand....A true friend was Jake and testament that crows truly are great birds


I have to say, the stories and comments on this thread have made me look at crows through new eyes.I have read up a bit, and have been watching how they behave when I'm out. One thing is sure, love them or hate them, they certainly seem to stir up emotions in people. I have found myself looking at them with new respect. Each must follow his own thoughts but personally, I will not be hunting crows any more.
[/quote]

I for one are relieved to hear that Mike and the crows too


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## KennyCannon (Aug 24, 2011)

Crows spot people well. You really need full camo and a face mask and to stay very still or they'll spot you.

They DO eat garbage though. Can't be that smart.


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## slingshot_sniper (Feb 20, 2011)

KennyCannon said:


> Crows spot people well. You really need full camo and a face mask and to stay very still or they'll spot you.
> 
> They DO eat garbage though. Can't be that smart.


Depends on your mind set,if we were that smart there'd be no garbage for them to eat


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## Aras (Apr 2, 2011)

Haha, when my dad cleans the roof, he finds various stuff hidden by crows: plastic jars, rice cakes, bread...


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## tokSick (Jan 25, 2012)

Hi,
This is the meanest bird i ever seen( on TV). The name is Johnny Rook or Flying Devil.






Those guys are crazy...


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## Karok01 (Jan 26, 2012)

Doesn't matter. Even if it can count, if it can't speak your name and say "no, please, I have children", shoot it, cook it, and eat it. My philosophy and I've always been a well fed verbal animal. The apposable thumbs help too... but honestly ....hehe....


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

It may not know what it is saying, but it could sreak your name and say a phrase like that. They can even be taught to sing! -- Tex


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## mr.joel (Dec 21, 2009)

tnflipper52 said:


> Pulled out the slingshot just to make a scattering shot. I swear as soon as they say the slingshot rise up, they flew. I suppose they can determin a humans body language and know when to scoot.


Likely it was your extended arms, not the weapon itself that gave you away. Prey animals often recognize this as a threat. They may not know how, but I think many are quite aware of our ability to utilize projectile weapons. They see us play the stick game with a dog, for example. They see the gross arm movement, then the stick flies. Surely they can do _that_ math, and must know that same stick could do them harm. A mountain of intelligence is not required for that, only a keen survival instinct. This is exactly why the Apache sling technique involves holding the sling _behind_ you.

Yes, they eat garbage as all omnivorous birds do. I don't think that our perceptions of palate reflect a lack of intelligence by consuming refuse as they are designed to eat carrion. Their digestive system can easily handle our waste.


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## tnflipper52 (Jan 26, 2012)

mr. joel, you are dead on. I did not want to hit the crows, just scare them off. We have a small garden out back, and crows being crows, well!
They have returned several times, and I have watched them, with no ill intent nor motion. They are fine just watching me and as long as I do not make a certain motion, they will stay right there in the tree. Remarkable birds these crows.


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## Deltaboy1984 (Jun 14, 2011)

_We shoot them with 22 Rifles and it is fun. _


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)




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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

the pbs nature documentary on them is really good. http://www.pbs.org/w...l-episode/5977/


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

Good Video! -- Tex


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## RockinRabbit (May 17, 2012)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow

Learn something new everyday!


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## whipcrackdeadbunny (May 22, 2010)

All wild animals are smart, if they're not, they die ... I'm always having to come up with new ways of approaching my hunting grounds, or the only things I can kill are the new-comers.


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## bopaloobop (Jun 3, 2012)

Crows seem to be one of the smartest birds out there.. Those little dudes remember faces.
Check this out, http://www.cracked.c...-you-think.html


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