Katharina Brecht: How smart are crows?

How smart are crows?

In one of Aesop’s fables, a crow is searching for water. It spies a pitcher— but the water inside is beyond its reach. So, the crow begins dropping in pebbles. One-by-one, they displace the water, and the crow quenches its thirst. This is just one of many fascinating displays of intelligence from corvids. Katharina Brecht digs into what makes this bold, brainy family of songbirds so smart. [Directed by Irida Zhonga, narrated by Pen-Pen Chen, music by Phil Brookes].

Corvids, including crows, ravens, and jays, stand out as some of the animal kingdom's brightest minds. In one study, crows mimicked Aesop’s fable by using stones to raise water and grab a treat, showing real-world problem-solving. These birds can cache thousands of nuts and remember their locations months later, plan for the future, and recognize individual human faces. Their playful behaviors and complex social lives reveal an intelligence once thought unique to primates.

Crows Rival Primates With Social Smarts And Ingenious Tools

Corvids, including crows and ravens, show remarkable intelligence that rivals many mammals. In real-life experiments, crows use tools, remember faces, and can plan for the future. A single Clark's nutcracker may hide 30,000 pine nuts and recover them months later. Their cleverness emerges through play, cooperation, and problem-solving that challenge old assumptions about bird brains.