Can You Recognize a Crow?

By Miss Cellania in Animals & Pets, Science & Tech on Jul 30, 2009 at 9:05 am


Crows can recognize individual people, but can you recognize a particular crow in a photo lineup? I couldn’t! Even people who raise crows as pets have a hard time telling crows apart. NPR presents the quiz and an accompanying video about crow research. Link -via the Presurfer


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  1. Kalel
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am

    Oh sure. All the suspects are black.

  2. Alex
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 11:09 am

    Do I have to call a Beer Summit now, Kalel?

  3. in_nah
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 11:40 am

    i am loving the comments so far. So crows can recognize individuals..is this so they know what cars to dirty? If so, I hope to remain in the good graces of the crows on my street.

  4. seekshelter
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

    ive often wondered if animals could recognize themselves if they saw a picture. if you show a cat sees another cat… do they think?? hey, thats what i am!!

  5. Foreigner1
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    I’m not surprised abot those birds- they have contacts with much more individuals on short notice than we humans ever have.
    I’m also not surprised that I flunked that test bigtime- I have a hard time even recognising my own friends the moment they switch to glasses or contacts or if they cut their hair or take a beard…

  6. Screen Sleuth
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

    Is there really “crow research”? Wow, what a thing to put on a resume.

  7. Kalel
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    Wait, every time we have a race problem, then we get beer…?

    Just call me Cracker.

  8. Alex
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    Cracker and beer it is then!

  9. Briannana
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    Not to brag, but I had no trouble whatsoever recognizing the individual crows. I have a pretty monstrous attention to detail when it comes to things like that. The trick is to notice the particular curve of the crown, the shape of the eye, and the angle of protrusion in the beak. Another sure-fire help is to check how the top and bottom of the beak come together. Does the bird have an over/under-bite? Also, notice how the feathers come together around the beak. Cool, all together. Crows are some mighty fascinating and intelligent animals.

  10. Frau
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    Meh – I love crows, so that was no biggie. I also keep tabs/statistics on the “murder” that inhabits my area.

  11. Mouserz
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    Wasn’t really hard to tell them apart…

  12. ted
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    Jim! Is that you?

  13. vonskippy
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    All crows (and magpies) look the same thru my rifle scope.

  14. PaulVI
    Jul 30th, 2009 at 11:24 pm

    “Can you recognize a crow?”

    “But why?”

  15. Tpu
    Jul 31st, 2009 at 12:52 am

    Could you recognize a chinese person?

  16. Batgirl
    Aug 3rd, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    Those are not crows…they are ravens which are a different species. Batgirl, birdwatcher


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