Crows

Crows are known to be very intelligent birds. Scientists who study animal behaviour have demonstrated this by applying problem-solving tests, in which crows out-perform all other species and breeds. Observing their behaviour through the picture windows of our apartment, Wendy and I, and a visitor we had that afternoon, were astonished late one winter afternoon about 15 years ago, when a vast procession flew past.  It was a gathering much too large to fit the collective noun, a murder of crows, which fits a small group gathered in a tree, cawing away at one another, chattering about the latest crow gossip. No, what we saw that late winter afternoon, was more like a convention of all the crows in Eastern Ontario and West Quebec.

I've seen similar large gatherings a few more times since that first one which caught Wendy's and my attention, the latest today, when I saw squadrons of crows converging towards a destination just east of my apartment building, out of sight from my windows. I think they came down to roost in the big trees alongside the Canal. As on previous occasions I'd estimate the numbers must have been well into the tens of thousands, perhaps even more.  

I hope scientists who study animal behaviour will soon develop ways to communicate with crows and other intelligent species, like porpoises and whales. We have much to learn to them -- and they have much to learn from us!