Kaeli Swift, Ph.D. Profile picture
Feb 16, 2018 22 tweets 7 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Dovetailing off the #WowScienceFact hashtag I want to dedicate a whole thread to all the things I find most wow enducing about crows and ravens. Ready?
Did you know there are 44 different Corvus (crows, ravens and rooks) species? They’re found on every continent except Antarctica and South America. Some of them, like the ʻalalā are among the rarest animals on earth. corvidresearch.blog/2017/01/05/the…
Given their unique natural histories, different species excel at different things. New Caledonian crows live on an island absent of woodpeckers so they’ve learned to use tools to eat food normally accessed by woodpeckers. They make hooks and toothed spears.
Part of their tool making success stems from their excellent causal reasoning skills. Scientists (inc. @LoganCorina) looked deeper into this by doing a series of Aesop’s fable exprmts. In his story of the crow and the pitcher a crow used stones to raise the water level and drink.
Scientists tested how well crows could actually reason through the properties of water and other objects in order to obtain food.
In one experiment New Caledonian crows were able to correctly choose heavy vs. light objects to raise the water level in a tube.
In another they were able to correctly choose a tube with water vs. sand.
You can watch the whole series of experiments here:
Switching gears to common ravens we have a bird that is more reliant on finding carrion. To achieve this ravens have several cool features.
The first is that they often share information about food bonanzas at the roost. The dominant knowledgeable bird will indicate it knows where food is via social soaring displays and will then lead others there. (Photo by Jim Brandenburg)
The other is that they’re often stealing food from apex predators like wolves. In an effort to distract and sneak food (or maybe just show off) ravens and some crows are notorious tail pullers.
Seriously. They pull all the tails.

google.com/amp/corvidblog…
In fact ravens can steal so much food from wolves that some scientists have suggested the reason wolves often hunt in pack sizes larger than is most efficient, is because they need the extra bodies to protect kills. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
So rather than the very friendly relation between wolves and ravens that’s often depicted in feel good memes, their relationship is very one sided and largely unwelcomed by wolves.
My study species, the American crow, has many wow features including facial recognition (which is not unique among corvids or many other animals) funeral behaviors (my area of study) and my favorite, which does seem to be more unique, gift giving.
Many, many people have reported receiving gifts (rocks, pieces of metal, beads, bones, missing personal items, feathers, keys, toys, etc.) from crows they feed. The story of Gabi Mann is perhaps the most famous. bbc.com/news/magazine-…
We don’t know why they do this but I suspect it’s a behavior born out of error but that’s reinforced with food and so continues. Or maybe like food offered during courtship it’s an intentional olive branch of relationship building. 🤷‍♀️
I’ll finish things off with my favorite and most GIFable feature. Crows and ravens love to play. They’re among only 25 species of birds that have been documented to play. corvidresearch.blog/2015/03/16/cro…
There are 7 kinds of play including sliding/sledding
Object play (photo by Jens Buddrich)
And hanging
Crows and ravens are really amazing creatures (but hey, what animal isn’t when you look closer.) I hope I’ve imbued a sense of wow into your Friday. Follow me here or on IG @ swiftcrow to meet the recommended daily dose of corvid. Thanks for reading!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Kaeli Swift, Ph.D.

Kaeli Swift, Ph.D. Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @corvidresearch

Sep 13, 2018
Omg apparently he @‘d tons of folks that RT’d this, to play armchair psychiatrist and double down on it being a raven. WHAT A WANKER 🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂😂😂 I’m dying.

For new followers/crow fans, both crows and ravens have blue eyes as babies. It transitions to the adult brown around 3-4 months. Some species OTOH, have brown eyes that turn blue!
Read 4 tweets
Sep 12, 2018
Hey guess what? It’s the best day of the week! It’s #CrowOrNo day!
Today’s challenge is brought to you by @Sciwhat. So what kind of a peeping Tom do they have here? A #CrowOrNo? Answer at 5:30 PST! Good luck!
Woof, I’m pretty late tonight, but data always takes precedent. Thanks for your patience! This week’s #CrowOrNo photo is...a crow!!!
Read 6 tweets
Sep 11, 2018
Here’s the thing about red squirrels...I dig their whole vibe. Here’s a thread of me just being delighted about them.
An explanation of their cache sites or middens. FYI I totally blanked on the word “scales” (you can tell by the long pause) but I meant to say scales not leaves.
My favorite midden yet!!! BTW did you know they can chatter without stopping for up to an hour?!
Read 9 tweets
Sep 5, 2018
It’s Wednesday, right? For sure? I’m not falling for this “it’s Wednesday, but not really” nonesense again today.
Ok well since it is actually a Wednesday...let’s get our #CrowOrNo on! New players: just tell me if at least one of these birds is a crow or not before 5:30ish PST. After that I post the answer and ID tips. Good luck!
You folks ready for your #CrowOrNo answer? The bird on the right is not a crow, it’s a raven! But the bird on the left is...
Read 12 tweets
Sep 4, 2018
These responses make me want to crawl under a rock. Honestly I don’t even know what I want to do which is terrifying enough, but add the “it took 5 years and 100+ applications” to the mix and it feels completely fucking hopeless.
Do I even want to stay in academia? IDK! I can’t imagine not doing researching but at the same time academia makes me so unhappy sometimes. And maybe I just want to stay in research because it’s the only life I’ve known.
Then there’s the whole issue of uprooting my whole life again and again over the next several years to chase something I don’t even know if I want. How do people with families swing that? Like they obviously do but...how?
Read 7 tweets
Aug 29, 2018
Nature is metal 🤟
This is a bleeding tooth fungus or Hydnellum peckii. Despite their deadly appearance these mushrooms are nontoxic, though they’re very bitter and bad to eat.
They are also key players in healthy forests because they are symbiotic with the trees around them, exchanging nutrients and fixed CO2. Kind of like some lichen species this fungus can indicate polluted or unhealthy forests.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(