When you hear crows, the first thing that comes to mind is a symbol of death, especially in movies. You believe that a person who has a crow is the villain, and the crow is a warning sign that death awaits them going forward. Maybe the reason they are associated with death is that they scavenge carcasses—remember the phrase “murder of crows”? When you see crows or ravens, you get the same feeling, and maybe they are just more common than we think.
For a start, they both belong to the Corvid family, which also includes other birds like the blue jay and nutcrackers. Birds from this family have one thing in common, and that is their intelligence with crows being one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. Their Emotional quotient has been said to rival lots of many animals including Apes. Quick one, Emotional Quotient is a national measure of a person's or animal’s adequacy in areas like self-awareness, ability to deal sensitively with other people, and empathy.
Crows have been seen on camera doing a lot of things that you would wonder if they were taught and this includes playing with tools just like humans and the ape species would. This has made us reach an agreement that they might be as intelligent as a seven-year-old human. With several tests on the crow's ability to get food for themselves in a tube, we have seen that their problem-solving ability is similar to that of a fifth-grade child.
About body size, the brain of a crow is similar in size to that of a chimpanzee. Their cognition has been put to the test by several research studies and they have come back positive with crows being able to identify objects, remember information, and create a solution for themselves out of whatever they have available to them. Their ability to use tools is only matched by a few primate species.
Crows intelligence have been reported by zookeepers explaining how crows know their eating schedule and when they are to go for exhibitions. These birds are very opportunistic and it has helped them increase their numbers just as humans increase theirs, also they have been able to live with us since they are able to take any opportunity they get which is why they can learn very fast where to find a free meal.
There is still a lot to learn about them like decoding their distinctive sound, learning more about what they can do, and understanding deeply to what extent their problem solving ability can get.
You Can Read More
https://u.osu.edu/tetrapods/2016/05/18/intelligence-in-corvidae-crows-jays-ravens-magpies/
https://nautil.us/crows-are-even-smarter-than-we-thought-820066/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10589215/
https://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/en/actualites/are-crows-really-smart
https://www.jasperlocal.com/2023/11/17/bird-brains-the-astonishing-intelligence-of-jaspers-corvids/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crows-perform-yet-another-skill-once-thought-distinctively-human/
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/crows-can-count-aloud-much-toddlers-new-study-finds