B+

Gifts of the Crow

After reading The Ravenmaster, I decided to make corvids (ravens, crows, jays, magpies, and some others) my new animal obsession. Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans is a great introduction to the behaviors of crows and ravens, specifically. It’s approachable, easy to read, and comes with lovely illustrations. It also has a lot of scientific content and it discusses the difference between anecdote and scientific observation.

In the course of the book, we discover that crows and ravens are clever, social, resourceful, and frankly kind of assholes. My favorite anecdote comes from a pair of kayakers who packed a picnic lunch complete with a pie, which was stolen by ravens (the whole pie, complete with pan). The next day the ravens returned with the now empty pan and dropped it on the same kayakers. Were they saying thanks? Asking for seconds? Rubbing it in?

Crows and ravens are both experts at face recognition among each other, humans, dogs, and cats and they seem to understand recipocrity and both gratitude and grudge-holding. They seem to mourn their dead and care for their wounded. They are able to use tools and plan ahead, and talk in crow and in human. They can reliably count up to six.

This is the kind of science book that I tend to enjoy the most. There is some good brain anatomy and chemistry, and then a lot of breakdown of different kinds of perception and intelligence. It’s very well organized and easy to read, and has sources should you wish to go deeper. If you are looking for a quick, easy, interesting read about these fascinating birds, this should do it for you!

– Carrie S

CROWS ARE MISCHIEVOUS, playful, social, and passionate. They have brains that are huge for their body size and exhibit an avian kind of eloquence. They mate for life and associate with relatives and neighbors for years. And because they often live near people—in our gardens, parks, and cities—they are also keenly aware of our peculiarities, staying away from and even scolding anyone who threatens or harms them and quickly learning to recognize and approach those who care for and feed them, even giving them numerous, oddly touching gifts in return.
With his extraordinary research on the intelligence and startling abilities of corvids—crows, ravens, and jays—scientist John Marzluff teams up with artist-naturalist Tony Angell to tell amazing stories of these brilliant birds in Gifts of the Crow. With narrative, diagrams, and gorgeous line drawings, they offer an in-depth look at these complex creatures and our shared behaviors. The ongoing connection between humans and crows—a cultural coevolution—has shaped both species for millions of years. And the characteristics of crows that allow this symbiotic relationship are language, delinquency, frolic, passion, wrath, risk-taking, and awareness—seven traits that humans find strangely familiar. Crows gather around their dead, warn of impending doom, recognize people, commit murder of other crows, lure fish and birds to their death, swill coffee, drink beer, turn on lights to stay warm, design and use tools, use cars as nutcrackers, windsurf and sled to play, and work in tandem to spray soft cheese out of a can. Their marvelous brains allow them to think, plan, and reconsider their actions.
With its abundance of funny, awe-inspiring, and poignant stories, Gifts of the Crow portrays creatures who are nothing short of amazing. A testament to years of painstaking research and careful observation, this fully illustrated, riveting work is a thrilling look at one of nature’s most wondrous creatures.