Comments on: Eating Crow

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:28:36 +0000

This sounds so cool! Nature at work. I’m at Penn State, and every year the Operations Crew uses flares and noise-makers to move the crows off the campus and out of the way. Maybe they should invest in a few raptors!!!

By: Anne Marie

Anne Marie — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:21:34 +0000

Marianne — good luck with the experiment. But will the crows seek revenge when they show up and there is no food? You’ve seen “The Birds” right??

By: Donna

Donna — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:56:54 +0000

After watching “A Murder of Crows” I have a whole new appreciation for them, but I still don’t like them

Marianne, I will be curious to know the outcome of your conditioning experiment.

By: Marianne

Marianne — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:15:02 +0000

Thanks for the plane tree info. I had not heard of them before.

I should have mentioned that someday I will beep my horn 3 times WITHOUT putting food out for the crows and see if they appear. If so, that will show that they can be conditioned to respond to the beeping.

By: Kate St. John

Kate St. John — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:18:44 +0000

Marianne, the trees I'm referring to are London plane trees, a hybrid of the Oriental plane tree (which looks like a sycamore) and the American sycamore. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platanus_%C3%97_hispanica London plane trees are very pollution-tolerant and were planted all over Pittsburgh 100 years ago when our air was so smoky. Crows prefer them for roosting because they are very tall and deciduous (therefore open in winter). p.s. I like your crow experiment!

By: Marianne

Marianne — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:19:20 +0000

Another interesting story. Kate, you are a bird detective!

Btw, since I am not from the Pittsburgh area, please tell me what plane trees are.

Since I love animal and especially bird behavior and American Crows are very intelligent, I decided to do an experiment with them.

Whenever I have leftover bread (my sister gives me lots) I break it up into chunks and put it in a certain open area next to my driveway. Then I beep my horn 3 times to notify the crows that food has arrived.

It seems like any crows that are nearby make a beeline to the food after I have left. I can see that area from the house. Maybe it is just a coincidence.

It is like the conditioning experiment that Pavlov did with dogs. In his initial experiment, Pavlov used a bell to call the dogs to their food and, after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the bell.

More info here about Pavlov’s experiments: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning

By: faith cornell

faith cornell — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:32:23 +0000

So glad I got a good walk in yesterday; beautiful day. But we did see alot of crows in Bridgeville. Some of them were pretty low on a few branches & they look right at you it seems. Tried talking to a few; no answer. They are really very fearful of us it seemed yesterday. But a lovely day to enjoy no matter what birds we saw. Today; well we will all be wet even the birds, even the crows.