Weird encounters with crows?

Has anyone had any strange encounters with crows or ravens? I was just thinking back to a time when as a teenager a group of up were walking in the woods when we noticed that every branch of every tree was covered in crows! It was very weird but none of us were really afraid, they were not attacking us or even cawing they just seemed to stare at us as the five of us walked down the path.

as we walked further down the trail the crows followed by hopping on to the nearest branches for about 100-150 yards before flying off in a group (or should I say murder)

It never happened again, and it all took place in a location that all of my friends used to hang out at. Pretty strange to me - I wonder if anyone has experienced anything similar?

One time walking home from school I noticed a ton of dark birds, couldn't really say if they were crows or ravens, but they were like a flock I guess, and they were moving really weird, like they were in a row like this :::::: and the back row of birds would fly to the front and theyd move like that like this rows 123456 would become 234561 and then 345612 it was strange they did it down the side of street there was about 50-60 birds and they did this for about 500 feet or so...

Well, I was in the graveyard and there was this lone crow up in the tree about 2 meters (6ft) above me.
How I noticed it was there was because it started to coo, then it started to almost say "hello, hello, hello, ello, ello", thats what it's low volume cooing sounded like, then I called back the same "hello, hello, hello, ello, ello". And the whole time that I was doing this I really felt as I was conversing with this crow, we both maintained eye contact and it felt like we had a real rapoir going on.
I never heard a crow make those sounds, let alone talk with me!

That was my weird crow story, is that what you wanted?

I saw on TV once about this crow that would crack nut shells at an intersection using cars, when the light turned red the crow would go eat the nut.

crows, ravens, magpies, etc. are all very intelligent and can have been shown to be learn new skills very quickly. But I don't know much else about them. I've never heard of so many being in one place at a time like this, unless it was a battlefield or something.

Anyone had an encounter with a whole murder of crows like me and my friends had?

piersploughman, what time of day was it when you and your friends saw all these crows? It is possible they were settling down for their evening roost-on another note, I had a similar experience with buzzards, believe it or not. It was in the early morning and we were going squirrel hunting in the back of this big field, as the sun rose we saw the trees were full of buzzards, literally there had to be hundreds of them. They were roosting, though, and waiting for the warm morning to sun to ease there flight efforts.

I agree, crows act very bizarre. They have an instinctive need to gather at certain seasons, and this can be exploited with a crow call. Blow one really loud, and someone will answer, and try to locate you. I studied field birds, not crows, but I do remember something about their gathering is beneficial to finding food. When a crow finds food it signals the others. Also when a crow is hurt, it screams and shrieks, and other crows come from everywhere to try to defend it. I think they may have been following you either because they have associated humans with food, or their natural instinct to drop onto the ground whenever a large animal goes by to hunt for insects and even rodents stirred up on the ground. This is my first post, are we suposed to really research my comments? Is that how this works? If so, I'm just pulling this from memory.

piersploughman, crows which are part of the corvid family are extremely intelligent, if they were hopping from one tree to the next and following you it was probably a protective gesture.Some research says that the crows brain is almost equal in size to apes.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

birding.about.com...

Most of my encounters with members of the corvid family have to do with magpies which also display many of the characteristics of crows.

I used to have a pet crow, talk about pushy...smart..remember people by names..everything..peoples routines..he stayed with us for 2 years, then he left by himself..but, we gave him the option to leave for awhile..it was cool because he just hung out after we saved him as a baby..I miss'em!

excellent stuff, glad to hear from some experts - and I always thought a pet crow would be cool. Can't remember what time of day it was but it was not dark or even dusk. The protective gesture seems interesting since if these crows lived in the general area, then they would have been very familiar with our group of friends - and I'm sure we were an excellent source of food (and probably beer) since it was very close to our old camping and party spot. maybe they were having crow parties after we left

Here is another discussion from a while back on this topic that you might find interesting.
Being followed by crows

Hi

Here's a link to an article which mentions the crows in Japan that Toadmund mentioned, some other useful info there as well - didn't realise they'd told their friends in California as well though!

www.pbs.org...

When I was a child we kept a jackdaw ( Corvid, member of the crow family) My brother had found him as a fledgling. We called him Jack ( original eh:lol) and he was with us for three years or so until my dad got a bit fed up and took him to a local bird sanctuary. He even used to go to work with my dad, who was a roofing contractor, in the van! ( Sitting on his shoulder while he was driving!) Very clever bird, used to talk a bit - this story reminded me of him. Mojo4sale - you are right - they are clever, probably on a par with parrots. There is also the thing about the "Rooks Parliament" - here's a link

www.marton.co.nz...

Didn't realise they were introduced to NZ until I looked for Rooks Parliament on the web for this link!

[edit on 18-2-2006 by maldives01]

Tee hee- just read the first link I posted, notice it goes into a story about a jackdaw called , interstingly, Jack - should teach me to read a link fully before posting.................

[edit on 18-2-2006 by maldives01]

I like crows there so smart, and they have a sense of humor...I fed abunch around my house and they remember me they like music.

I love crows! I've been trying to get a pet crow but Mum isn't too keen on it at the moment.

Our town has had a crow gathering here every winter for as long as i can remember, they go out to the tilled up fields all day, and fly into the same trees in mass quantity right at sunset.

funny story... As im standing outside havin a smoke break, a kid walking by one of the those trees last year decided to light a firecracker and run.

Lets just say Crows are excellent bombardiers in mass quantity.

I have had an experience with crows, WHEN THEY WAKE ME UP AT 4 IN THE MORNING CROWING IN THE FOREST AROUND MY HOUSE!!!

Darn crows, wish I had a shotgun.....or a lasergun, or maybe some earmuffs.

Crows are among the most intelligent and confident birds. This combination makes them perform strange things. They have the ability to quickly learn and adopt new habits too. Other than that, I don't see any of the posts as indicative of anything paranormal or out of the ordinary. Crows DO do unique things compared to other birds.

Hi DrBones,

ref:"I have had an experience with crows, WHEN THEY WAKE ME UP AT 4 IN THE MORNING CROWING IN THE FOREST AROUND MY HOUSE!!!

Darn crows, wish I had a shotgun.....or a lasergun, or maybe some earmuffs."

Try the earmuffs, or even invest in double-glazing - far better options than extermination, surely? I have a rookery close to where I live - 150 yds. and the rooks there cannot be any noisier than your crows - we have double glazing and it never bothers us! Just a part of living in the country isn't it? I personally would rather live next to noisy birds than next to a motorway ( freeway ) wouldn't you?

I knew a woman who always had crows in the tree on her front lawn. As you approached the house they dive bombed you.

I finally asked her about it. It seems they had showed up about three years prior after she came home from town one day after accidentally hitting one and it was dead in her grill. They had been there ever since doing this.

In Malaysia where I live there are quite a number of locations throughout the big cities where crows congregate for the night. I call them "Crow Cities". The most notorious of them is the Crow City at Bangsar, along the Telawi area that's popular with tourist and expats. Every day 1-2 hours before the sun sets you can see hundreds and hundreds of crows from all over the city head towards the stand of 5 Sena trees in front of the Bangsar Mosque.

What's cool is the way they fly towards the place. They'll come in groups or at least in a pair. I've never seen one of them going there solo. If a bird comes in solo, it will stop at some other trees about a kilometer away from their city and wait for other birds to come. Once their partner shows up, they'll fly with their wing-tips touching each other. And then for 4 hours after sunset the place is noisy with the cawing of the crows.

They don't dive bomb people though, but they'll let out a different type of 'bomb' if you know what I mean