LOVE THEM OR LEAVE THEM, CROWS ARE HERE TO STAY (6/22/01)

Many of us have a love-hate regard for crows and jays. Recently, I’ve heard many complaints about crows. “There are so many of them!” “They are so noisy!”. Right now, I couldn’t agree more with both of those observations. At first light, not long after the mourning doves begin their day-long cooing, the crows decide on their day’s agenda. One crow suggests heading east to a newly-planted garden. Another disagrees, shouting his notion that they should head north where garbage has spilled from a dumpster.

Once our crowd works out its plan, they send it along to the next coterie. Those crows, maybe a quarter of a mile away, have their own opinions that often disagree with our crows and it takes a whole lot of strategizing before both groups are satisfied. So much for our plan to sleep in!

Nonetheless, I really admire crows and all the members of their family, including various species of jays and ravens. So, imagine my pleasure when I received a copy of a Sierra Club book, “Bird Brains” by Candace Savage, with a subtitle The intelligence of crows, ravens, magpies and jays!

This book, regardless of your perspective on these members of the Corvid family, is a delight! The photos are simply stunning. The poems sprinkled throughout the publication are so to point. Try this by Henry Ward Beecher, “If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.”

There are 113 members of the avian family called Corvidae, or corvids, which includes crows, jackdaws, rooks, ravens, as well as jays, nutcrackers and magpies. We here in the East are limited to the common crow, blue jay and in the western part of our state to the raven. However, that is why reading about all the other relatives makes this book so interesting.

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to live or travel in different parts of the U. S. has probably been delighted by the antics of the Stellar’s jays in the shady forests of our western mountains. These handsome birds often visit campgrounds and picnic sites, ready for a handout.

If you’ve been to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, you were sure to have seen the green jays with their gaudy green, yellow, purple and black feathers. And, if you were really close to the border or have traveled in Mexico, you undoubtedly heard and saw the raucous and large brown jay. Perhaps you have wintered in the scrub oak areas of central Florida, where you may have met the Florida scrub jay. If you find one of them, you will surely see more, as they live in small social groups.

Altogether in the U.S. there are ten species of jays; two of magpies (one in California only, the other in various parts of the West); one nutcracker, found in mountainous country throughout the West; four crows; and two ravens. While the jays may differ considerably in their looks, crows and ravens, no matter which continent they inhabit, look and behave much alike. We have encountered these black banditti in Hawaii, Middle America, Africa and Europe across the continent to China. In fact, they are present on every continent except Antarctica and in every country except New Zealand.

Although I know there are plenty of folks who do not care for blue jays, I, for one, admire their smartness, their sauciness. I love the way they swoop in to the feeder. What presence! They can raise their crests or keep them flat against their heads. They are noisy and feisty, especially in the fall when acorns mature. They are alert and opportunistic. They know every other bird’s business, who’s nesting where, which nests are accessible for grabbing an egg or a chick and where the best food is to be found.

This eating of another bird’s young may be abhorrent to many, but since I know that robins are one of the most frequently robbed, I realize that Mother Nature had a plan for each of her creatures. Robin populations are certainly in no way affected by the loss of a nest or two to jays. Perhaps they learn to be more subtle about their nest placement the next time.

Ornithologist John Terres suggests that corvids have probably achieved the highest degree of intelligence to be found in any birds. Scientists have performed many studies of corvids and their abilities to show thought. One study asked, “How can birds learn and remember without an elaborate cerebral cortex?” The answer was contained in the avian brain, built on its own unique plan.

Instead of relying on the cortex, birds have developed another part of the forebrain, the hyperstriatim, which mammals lack, as their chief organ of intelligence. The larger the hyperstriatum, the better birds fare on intelligence tests, and as you probably can guess, the corvids are tops among birds for overall brain size. The brain-to-body ratio of crows, ravens and magpies equals that of dolphins and nearly matches humans.

This book is packed with one interesting anecdote after another, each illustrating some factor of a corvid’s life, from courtship and nesting, family relations, dealing with predators to every-day decision making, sociability, game playing and even the loss of a mate. Whether you find crows and their relatives to be “grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous” as did Edgar Allen Poe, or consider them to be captivating, quick on the uptake, curious, clever, canny, cunning, congenial and competitive, I am sure that you will enjoy this book from cover to cover.

Bird Brain is available at local book stores or from Random House: 1-800-726-0600