Birds

• Crows have about 300 different calls, but not all crows understand each other. Just like us, they have different accents. Crows in the United States don't understand some calls that their British cousins make and vice versa.
  
  
• Birds make sounds that we dont usually hear, like the hushed chatter and whispering between two nesting crows. They take turns talking, having the bird equivalent of a conversation.
  
  
• Birds remember exactly where theyve hidden thousands of seeds each autumn and can find their way back to their stashes using the sun, stars, landmarks and sometimes the magnetic pull of the Earth to guide them. Isnt that incredible?
  
  
• We know that crows use tools like twigs to pick up food, but one crow amazed birdwatchers by going one step further and making her own tool! She cleverly bent a wire in order to hook a piece of food that she couldnt reach with her feet. What a smart bird!
  
  
• Birds dance, play hide-and-seek and have even been seen sliding down snowy slopes and climbing back up over and over for the sheer joy of it, just as we do!
  
  
• Crows in Japan have been seen using cars to crack open walnuts. The birds wait until cars stop at road junctions, then they place nuts in the road, knowing that when the traffic light turns green, the cars will roll over the nuts and crack them open. When the light turns red and the cars stop again, the crows hop back into the street to eat the nuts. How clever is that?!
  
  
• Many people have witnessed birds grieving. After a car killed a coucals (a member of the cuckoo family) mate, he refused to leave her side or stop trying to revive her.
  
  
• Birds also show astonishing kindness. A robin who crippled his rival in a fight fed him and worked to keep him alive. Pairs of terns took turns lifting a hurt flockmate by his wings in order to carry him to safety.

Back to Top