I saw some video once about intelligence tests on crows. In one experiment they had a tall but thin glass of water with some treat floating on the surface but it was too low for the crow to reach. So the crow started dropping rocks into the glass, causing the water level to rise, until it could reach the treat.

I was so impressed, I wanted to replicate that. I went to a park around the corner with some nuts to befriend some crows. My plan was to just feed them for a while so they would trust me. But after a few days I had flock of crows following me everywhere through the city. That was a bit too much.

'tux1968 shared a great story about helping a crow a few years ago.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41405773

Birds are wild. Found a chickadee fledgling in the road earlier this year and nursed him for a couple days before we found a legitimate rehab. Little guy would just hop out of his box, perch on your finger, and sing as loud as he could until you fed him scrambled eggs. Really got me thinking about how special birds are. We have a hummingbird that visits and he'll do stuff like fly into the garage if the door is open, hover and stare at you for 1-2 seconds, and then take off. It's happened so many times I've stopped being startled by the sudden brrrr noise you hear from their wings flapping (they're so fast they can show up in the blink of an eye).

The bumblebees do something similar (I've oddly nursed three different bees with sugar water—all just happened to be in my field of vision crawling around on the ground but not flying). Now you get a bumble or two per day checking in with a quick hover and bob kind of movement before shooting off into the distance.

Does anyone know of any research into this or books identifying behavior like this?

Some limited intelligence but strictly focused on the environment and goal. Similarly, local 27B models often outperform large 816B (42B active) models in different tasks.

My ex mother in law bonded with a crow. She had it spending time on her shoulder whenever she was spending time in her garden.

It was quite a sight, especially when she was wearing dark clothing.

A few centuries before people would have had her burned for being a witch.

Somehow, I came across this just yesterday:

What Ravens Do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RGmh_C3Kyg

And this short piece by the same director while looking for the other:

This short film documents six weeks in the life of a family of ravens in the Verdugo Mountains near Los Angeles. I first noticed two baby ravens who were very small and just out of the nest. This movie covers this family as their parents prepare them to go off and live life on their own.

The Ravens of Verdugo Vance Crofoot 375 views Jul 30, 2021 LOS ANGELES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbW2LmWtQ7g

in one of the most interesting book "Number: The Language Of Science" by Mr. Tobias Dantzig (yes _that_ Dantzig, father of Mr. George Dantzig, the one who discovered Simplex Algorithm) talks about the "number sense", and has the following (heavily paraphrased) anecdote about a squire who want to shoot a crow that has nested in the watchtower of his estate:

    Whenever he goes into the tower, the crow flies off and won’t come back until he has 
    left. So he tries a trick: two men go in, one comes out, and the other stays hidden. 
    The crow isn’t fooled and waits until the second man leaves too. The same happens with 
    three men and with four. Only with five men, four leaving and one staying, does the 
    crow lose track and return to the nest.

Related, my favourite section of the book King Solomon's Ring from Konrad Lorenz:

I have already mentioned that jackdaws remember for a long time the creature that once triggered their rattling reaction—that is, anyone who has once attacked a jackdaw. This posed a serious obstacle when it came to ringing the chicks hatched in my colony. If I took them out of the nest to fasten the aluminum Rossitten rings onto their legs, the old jackdaws inevitably noticed and raised an unbridled rattling concert. Well then, what was I to do so that the birds would not fear me forever because of the ringing, since this fear would have immeasurably hindered my work? The solution was exceedingly simple: a disguise! Well, what kind? That was simple too. Lying right at hand in a chest in the attic—and suiting my purposes very well, even though under normal circumstances we only use it on the sixth of December—was a splendid, all-fur Krampus costume, complete with a long-tongued, horned mask that covered the entire head, and a huge, fluffy, stiffly protruding devil's tail hanging from it.

What would you imagine, gentle reader, if on a fine June day you heard a wild rattling coming from a high, peaked roof, and upon looking up, saw the Devil himself—with horns, tail, and hooves, his long tongue hanging out obviously from the heat—climbing from chimney to chimney in the midst of a swarm of deafeningly rattling black birds? I think the overall impression would this time distract your attention from the fact that Satan was using a pair of flat-nose pliers to fasten Rossitten identification rings onto the legs of jackdaw chicks, and then carefully placing the little birds back into their nest. Even I only noticed after finishing the ringing that people had gathered in a dense crowd on the main street of the village, staring at me with the exact same stunned terror as the Whitsun excursionists had from behind the fence back then. Except that had I introduced myself, the whole exercise would have lost its point, which is why I merely gave them a friendly wag of my devil's tail and vanished through the attic window.

Whenever I see a story about how clever crows are, I'm reminded of that guy who gave the TED talk about crows collecting rubbish after sporting events and picking up coins in return for food. Turned out he made it all up.

Its interesting how this woman can go this far for a crow but still eat meat everyday.

I appreciate your AI (Avian Intelligence) contribution to HN.

There's something beautifully eloquent about how a bundle of feathers may be one of this person's most cherished gifts they ever receive, no amount of money can match that.

Crows reach fabulous levels of (animal) intelligence with a brain that is a fraction of the size of the brain of great apes. I wonder what progress has been made in studying the differences in organisation between the two.

This site's Tony Soprano moment

Why does this post not allow me to vote on it?

this is prohibited content.

This is special. Thanks for sharing. Warmed my heart.

Obligatory "Rick & Morty did it first"

I submit this days ago, not sure why it says I submit it 5 hours ago ... but sure ... change my submission time like it's completely meaningless.