Meat Eating Magpie!

[skyhuck]

They bent wire into shape to make tools.

 

 

I stand corrected, not seen that before, pretty impressive.

[GlobalNewark]

That's impressive

[Eddy_t]

I stand corrected, not seen that before, pretty impressive.

 

 

Loads on YouTube, even down to crows having to straighten the wire out instead!

[Mull]

It was on telly not long ago, a crow was getting fed a bit of bread in a park it took the bread to a pond, dropped it in, fish came to get it and crow got the fish! Clever buggers.

[csservices]

HI JACK i seen 10 the other day in one tree on a shoot weres the game keeper when you need one thanks jon

 

I don't think the rhyme for magpies goes up to ten lol, it goes one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told. Other half is very superstsious and will always wave at a lone magpie as she believes its bad luck not too.

[Eddy_t]

I don't think the rhyme for magpies goes up to ten lol, it goes one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told. Other half is very superstsious and will always wave at a lone magpie as she believes its bad luck not too.

 

 

I've heard up to 9, though I think 6 is optimum, I like gold, don't care much for secrets, they can't buy you shiny tools!

[Macpherson]

when I was young it was a treat to see one but now they`re everywhere and I`m sure that they and they`re cousins are a major factor in the decline of many other species, there`s much less at the bird table these days. I became very much more aware of the whole murderous process when I used to do roof work and watched fledglings trying to leave the nest from a birds eye point of view.

[Gary Prentice]

don't care much for secrets, they can't buy you shiny tools!

 

You've never tried blackmail then?

[Billhook]

One for sorrow,

Two for luck; (or mirth)

Three for a wedding,

Four for death; (or birth)

Five for silver,

Six for gold;

Seven for a secret,

Not to be told;

Eight for heaven,

Nine for [hell]

And ten for the d[evi]l's own sell![3]

 

(Better be careful in dem der woods Mendiplogs!)

 

In the New Scientist magazine some years ago they did an article on Caledonian Crows and they did the bucket test on two different birds.

This time they were in a cage and the small length of straight wire was introduced.

The first crow looked at the problem, found that its beak was not long enough for the bucket, thought about it and picked the wire up and then bent it into shape using its foot.

The second one did the same thinking but bent it in the bars of the cage.

 

This process amazed the scientists as they did not think that birds were capable of abstract thought.

Chimpanzees for instance seem to be intelligent by doing something similar using a twig to insert into a termite mound to bring out a mouthful of termites.

But as I recall, I do not think the chimps thought "I have a problem here, what I need is a tool to stick in there etc" They were much more likely to learn the process by playfully messing about with a twig, and then find to their joy that they had a good result and the whole colony quickly learns the process. The point being that they did not imagine the tool they needed with abstract thought.

In the scientists eyes this put the crows in a higher category of intelligence than chimps. (but that may only be in one area of intelligence)

 

Further stories came in from readers.

 

One reader witnessed crows sitting on traffic lights with nuts in their beaks. They waited till the lights turned red and swooped down in front of the now static cars and deposited the nuts. Went back to their perches and when the lights turned green they were rewarded with a load of cracked nuts.

 

But the best story came from a guy in Canada who had been observing a deer carcass from a hide.

A crow landed by the carcass and they are incredibly wary and know all about traps and poison.

It circled the carcass observing everything before pecking in darting movements at it by leaning away as much as it could to try and set off any traps.

When it was completely satisfied that there was no trap it then took a sample of the meat and wandered around for a bit to see if it had any detrimental effect.

It was eventually happy and started to tuck in.

 

All of a sudden to the observers astonishment it keeled over. The observer thought " Well it was not such a clever bird after all"

A moment later a small flock of about half a dozen crows came over and on seeing the dead crow they realised it was not a good idea to feed there, so they went away.

 

Just as they were out of sight the "dead" crow suddenly came to life and continued tucking in without competition.

 

Now that is what I call intelligent!

Edited February 16, 2015 by Billhook

[geoff]

Talking of crows they did a survey to find out why so many were getting killed by commercial vehicles, & much less by family vehicles, turned out the crows can warn each others by shouting 'carr carr' but had not learnt to shout 'truck'!