Ed et al,

On a recent episode of Nova on PBS, they looked at intelligence of birds,
and spent quite a bit of time on crows, including a few demonstrations of
complex tool use. I think most of the crows were New Caledonian Crows, and
I'm not sure how they compare to our North American and Northwestern crows
and ravens, but it's worth a watch anyway. You can view it online here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/bird-brain.html

Thanks for sharing this very interesting account.

Max


On Sun, Feb 18, 2018, 11:24 Ed Swan <edswan2 at comcast.net> wrote:


> I just watched a crow that really wanted the last chunk of suet in the

> suet feeder get it out by pulling the chain that the suet feeder mesh box

> was hanging from. When the crow landed on the crook of the pole and then

> moved down to where the chain was hanging from under the crook, it found

> that it couldn't quite reach the last bit of suet. So then it grabbed the

> chain with its beak and pulled the mesh box with the suet in it up to where

> it could peck at the suet. It then poked the suet enough that it got small

> enough to push through half inch holes of the box and knocked the suet out

> onto the ground and retrieved it there. I don't know if it figured out

> that last part of pushing it out or if that's just the way it played out

> but the crow definitely used the chain as a tool to pull the suet within

> reach. I thought only ravens were smart enough to do that.

>

>

>

>

>

> Ed Swan

>

> Nature writer and guide

>

> www.theswancompany.com

>

> edswan2 at comcast.net

>

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