Crows are excellent speakers of the Spanish. Next time you feed him, try asking "Hola cuervito! Che pasa?" and hear the news of the neighbourhood. Crows are like organic miniature intelligence drones. They see everything, the hear everything (when Spanish obviously) and they even smell everything. They can tell you which baker has a fresh batch of cookies.
Just up the street from where I used to live in San Francisco, there was one of those fast-food restaurants that was either a KFC or a Taco Bell (depending on the angle from which it was viewed). The establishment was a frequent stopping point for students coming from the nearby college... and those students were a frequent target for a remarkably bright crow.
Now, on most days, the bird in question would just hang around the restaurant (as well as other ones nearby) and scavenge for scraps. Every once in a while, though – I saw this happen twice, and had it happen to me once – it would enact a much more complex scheme than simply going through the gutter: The crow had apparently discovered that money could be exchanged for food, so it would wait until it saw a likely mark, squawk at them to get their attention, then pick up and drop a coin. Anyone who responded would witness the bird hopping a few feet away, then following its "victim" toward the source of its next snack.
When the crow approached me, it dropped a nickel on the ground. I stooped, picked up the coin, and then jumped slightly when the bird made a noise that sounded not unlike "Taco!"
Needless to say, I bought that crow a taco.
The final out-of-pocket cost for me, minus the nickel, was something like $1.15. Even so, I figured a bird that smart deserved a reward simply for existing.
Of course, that was probably exactly what I was supposed to think.
TL;DR: A crow paid me five cents to buy it a taco.
diMario on March 4th, 2022 at 14:13 UTC »
Crows are excellent speakers of the Spanish. Next time you feed him, try asking "Hola cuervito! Che pasa?" and hear the news of the neighbourhood. Crows are like organic miniature intelligence drones. They see everything, the hear everything (when Spanish obviously) and they even smell everything. They can tell you which baker has a fresh batch of cookies.
MyLifesParody on March 4th, 2022 at 14:26 UTC »
Nice pic!
What do you feed it? How often? Has it started to bring you gifts yet?
I’ve started to feed the crows in my neighborhood as I’ve always wanted to have one around, now I have a flock…
RamsesThePigeon on March 4th, 2022 at 14:53 UTC »
Just up the street from where I used to live in San Francisco, there was one of those fast-food restaurants that was either a KFC or a Taco Bell (depending on the angle from which it was viewed). The establishment was a frequent stopping point for students coming from the nearby college... and those students were a frequent target for a remarkably bright crow.
Now, on most days, the bird in question would just hang around the restaurant (as well as other ones nearby) and scavenge for scraps. Every once in a while, though – I saw this happen twice, and had it happen to me once – it would enact a much more complex scheme than simply going through the gutter: The crow had apparently discovered that money could be exchanged for food, so it would wait until it saw a likely mark, squawk at them to get their attention, then pick up and drop a coin. Anyone who responded would witness the bird hopping a few feet away, then following its "victim" toward the source of its next snack.
When the crow approached me, it dropped a nickel on the ground. I stooped, picked up the coin, and then jumped slightly when the bird made a noise that sounded not unlike "Taco!"
Needless to say, I bought that crow a taco.
The final out-of-pocket cost for me, minus the nickel, was something like $1.15. Even so, I figured a bird that smart deserved a reward simply for existing.
Of course, that was probably exactly what I was supposed to think.
TL;DR: A crow paid me five cents to buy it a taco.