In the company of crows: but is it a murder?

The answer is yes, as long as there are three or more of them. Thanks to a quaint bit of nomenclature that dates back to the Middle Ages, groups of animals have fanciful nicknames, e.g., a gaggle of geese, a pride of lions, a pod of whales, a murder of crows.

Corvids, a family of birds that includes crows, jays, jackdaws and ravens, are often associated with unpleasant experiences, and crows in particular feature often in spooky, macabre settings. Their tendency to gather in large groups just before night fall, the harsh sounds of cawing coupled with their deep-black plumage helps explain their presence in typical Hallowe’en imagery. But is there more to their spooky reputation?

Before scientists studied them to learn about their behavior, superstition built on observation made the sight of them a warning of impending doom.  These dark-feathered scavengers were often seen around the dead: eating carrion; near battlefields, cemeteries or gallows.

Janine Bendicksen, curator and wildlife rehabilitation director at Sweetbriar Nature Center, has seen this reputational damage firsthand. 

“People hate crows,” she said. “Until you work with them, you don’t appreciate how intelligent they are. Far from being aggressive, they learn.

Every species has its own personality. How an animal behaves tells you a lot about its intelligence.  Crows are so smart. They will not approach food unless they have posted lookouts, a group positioned in a triangle that sits first and alerts the others when it’s safe to approach.  They protect the group, not just themselves.”

Researchers have found that crows can recognize and remember faces, especially of someone or something that has posed a threat.  They learn “by proxy,” following the lead of other, more experienced members.

They will also react strongly to the death of another crow, and will gather around its remains. The first crow to come upon a dead member of their group will produce an “alarm call” that attracts others to gather. While people will often cite this as a “crow funeral,” scientists believe it is more likely a way of danger learning, creating a memory of the localized places or other features associated with the death, to be more wary in future encounters.

One experience with danger will be sufficient to mark the encounter in a crow’s working memory, while it will take many more, successive positive encounters to establish trust, for example with kind, feeding behaviors. They have learned to be cautious around humans, the only predator more of a threat to them than owls.

For these reasons, Bendicksen is facing a great challenge with Niles, a young crow recently brought into her care.  As a nestling, string wrapped around the lower end of his leg cut off circulation, causing too much damage to save it from amputation below the knee. It was clear he could not be released.

To help him transition into a new life as an education animal, Bendicksen knows his intelligence has to be stimulated so that he doesn’t fail to develop appropriately. His need for socialization is another challenge the Nature Center will meet as he grows.

At this time of year, as the light fades, crows will begin to gather in small groups around one to two hours before sunset before moving to an overnight location. During this interim period, there will be activity—cawing, pursuit, fighting—prior to their relocation at dark. This will continue through the winter. Crows do not migrate.

Others are migrating, however, and are in need of our help.

“We’re getting a lot of migrating birds, crashing into windows,” Bendicksen said. “They fly at night and when they see light, inside or outside—it confuses them.  It really helps if we remember to turn off interior and exterior lighting between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. at this time of year until late November, to make the night sky dark as it used to be.”

To learn more about Niles’s progress, tips for wildlife safety, or events and programs at Sweetbriar Nature Center, go to sweetbriarnc.org, (631) 979-6344, or follow on Instagram @sweetbriarnaturecenter.