Birds hold 'funerals' for dead

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


Have you ever heard the term " Crows Court"?

Crows will gather in a group (a murder) and form a circle, they will then form a "court" to pass judgement on a crow. The crow that is being judged will stand in the center of the "court", then after a lot of cawing they might all fly off or the "Alpha" crow will enter the circle. If that happens, the crow being judged will bow its head and the "alpha " crow will execute it with a sharp blow to the skull.

Also both crows and magpies mourn their dead.

This article does a nice job of summing up all the older anecdotes involving animals and grief. It is a nice read if you are interested.

Originally posted by Deadlockxii
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Have you ever heard the term " Crows Court"?

Crows will gather in a group (a murder) and form a circle, they will then form a "court" to pass judgement on a crow. The crow that is being judged will stand in the center of the "court", then after a lot of cawing they might all fly off or the "Alpha" crow will enter the circle. If that happens, the crow being judged will bow its head and the "alpha " crow will execute it with a sharp blow to the skull.

Also both crows and magpies mourn their dead.

The crows are the most intelligent birds known as they have the biggest brain mass as when compared to its size. The court is held for several reasons with different offenses carrying different punishments:
1- Stealing the food of the young: the court de-feathers the offender so it can't fly just like the young...
2- destroying or ransacking a nest: the offender will build a replacement nest
3- attacking a female crow: death as described in this article.


Read more: wiki.answers.com...'crows_court'#ixzz25HbSVKxi

I have seen birds flock and communicate in huge swarms in trees. I've seen birds protect their young, attack people near their nests, play tag with each other, bully other birds, attack other birds, communicate and understand human speech (Makaw), sing to each other, communicate, mate, and more. Why is it such a surprise? Birds are smart many animals are smart were just blinded by our own complexity to give other animals credit. Animals know things we cant even preceive like electromagnetic flows of the earth and coming disasters. Look at the young elephant that took a young girl to high ground when it sensed the tsunami coming, this elephant had been playing with this young girl on the beach for a few weeks. Most animals would have run for high ground, this elephant saved the young girls life and everyone else on the beach as they chased it up the hill . It avoided the tsunami and saved people. Intelligent, compassionate, caring, sentient. I think most animals are they just don't have our mindset.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


I think Humans are incredibly ignorant (and arrogant) in the belief that they and they alone have emotions, recognize their own existence, and understand the concept of death. How we as Humans can believe in the concept of a Soul, then look at the behavior of animals and not see the same characteristics is beyond me..

As for birds, I had 3 parakeets for years and years. One day two of them, it appeared to us, murdered the third and buried it under seed at the bottom of the cage. A few years later when one of the two remaining died of natural causes, the last bird just sat on it's perch staring at the wall.. wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, and eventually died. There was clearly some social dynamics and personality in that cage. Same can be said for every dog and cat I've ever had.. they all had very distinct personalities.

reply to post by Rockpuck


I agree. However, I am slightly agnostic about, but that is due mainly to my solipsistic outlook. I can't even prove you have a conscious. Still, if you were to have a consciousness, I can't see why an animal would not. I mean a hatchback family wagon has an engine and so does a F650 SuperTruck. Even though they are different, they are still both cars.

We may be humans and they may be birds, but that doesn't consciousness is limited to one or the other.

This is very intriguing. I think animals are very smart, some more than others. My cat had a litter of kittens a couple of years ago. My dog happened to get in the room with them one night. Sadly she killed 2 of them. My cat after that has never been the same. It's almost as if she's constantly looking for her kittens. Completely different now as well, and she now hates my dog. She will attack her anytime she gets close to her. So yeah based on my experiences with animals. Birds would be more than capable of having a funeral so to speak for a fallen comrade. I think we humans can learn a lot from animals.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


The more I read, the more I encounter news like this - funerals among animals; I read about a "crow trial" in which a group of crows gathered, "talked" for a while, and then attacked and killed one of their members. Apes and monkeys exhibiting funereal behavior, elephants - the more we learn, the more it seems that animals behave similarly to us in many respects.

I was wondering, though, about one comment you made. You noted that animals may do this to protect themselves. I don't understand this comment. Do you mean, they find a dead bird, then call an alarm to warn others that there is a predator around, something like that?

Originally posted by baruch60610
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

The more I read, the more I encounter news like this - funerals among animals; I read about a "crow trial" in which a group of crows gathered, "talked" for a while, and then attacked and killed one of their members. Apes and monkeys exhibiting funereal behavior, elephants - the more we learn, the more it seems that animals behave similarly to us in many respects.

I was wondering, though, about one comment you made. You noted that animals may do this to protect themselves. I don't understand this comment. Do you mean, they find a dead bird, then call an alarm to warn others that there is a predator around, something like that?

According to the article, yes.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


When my dad was over seas he said that baboons would go a long ways to bring there dead home , but i i would not have thought that birds would come to there dead. thank you for this post i would like to check into this a little more

Nice

Originally posted by SpearMint

Originally posted by selfharmonise
reply to post by SpearMint

 

Define funeral.....

Noun:
The ceremonies honoring a dead person, typically involving burial or cremation.

What are you getting at?

That the word funeral in this article may be misleading.

The fact that "funeral" is a complex notion that in our society usually involves the disposal of a corpse. If you leave the organised disposal of the body aspect out of it and focus on your dictionary definition of funeral...might the birds not be honouring their dead in some way?

Is there no room for that potential in your mind?

Originally posted by DAZ21
You know, I was thinking just the other day.

Where do birds go to die?

I've never seen a bird carcass, unless It's been road kill or a chick fallen from a nest.

So where do they go?

The get eaten by small predators, foxes, dogs, cats....

Birds are funny old creatures, I remember when I was a kid, me and my friend where walking along the path near a field and there was a big cluster of birds on the ground eating something, probably a wet area with a load of worms on the surface or something, and my friend threw a pebble at them to scare them off, and he didnt mean to but he hit a starling right in the middle of its bac and must of winded it as it couldnt fly away and was sqwuaking one hell of a racket, and because it started doing this, all the other birds that where scared away from the stone being thrown rushed back down and started attacking the starling that was sqwuaking!! really wierd....

reply to post by John_Rodger_Cornman

What?

Human are not the only organism that can express emotion.

You should know humans are the only organism that can exhibit psychopathy,narcissism and sociopathy.

I beg to differ...

Psycho swan kills 15 fellow birds in village pond.

A swan, nicknamed Hannibal, appears to be systematically killing his fellow birds, according to one British tabloid.

The Sun reports that the bird “beats” other swans with his beak, and then “batters them with his wings, before drowning them by holding their heads underwater.

I have seen swans do this and even had to break up a fight once with my mates help, it was terrifying.






Eta link.


Furthermore, an unprovoked attack on a family of Geese!



/killer-swan-blamed-for-mans-drowning/

Has happened to me too whilst rowing...

psycho-swan-not-going-anywhere




Needless slaying of an innocent goosling for what appear to be sport!...



NEED I GO ON?

Originally posted by Deadlockxii
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Have you ever heard the term " Crows Court"?

Crows will gather in a group (a murder) and form a circle, they will then form a "court" to pass judgement on a crow. The crow that is being judged will stand in the center of the "court", then after a lot of cawing they might all fly off or the "Alpha" crow will enter the circle. If that happens, the crow being judged will bow its head and the "alpha " crow will execute it with a sharp blow to the skull.

Also both crows and magpies mourn their dead.

Amazing, I seem to remember the phrase but never knew where it originated from.

Ok, this is from 1950s, black & white tv, I remember a Little Lulu cartoon where she thought she killed a black bird. The birds, in cartoon fashion, had a funeral. I was sad. Then, to much joy, especially for Little Lulu, the bird had been only knocked unconscious and lived to fly another day.

After reading through this thread, I wonder if the cartoon storyline had come from observational science.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


This is very cool if they do! I believe that many animals carry more intelligence then we give them credit for, as there are animals that use improvised tools to catch food

Birds too have a heart. They do have emotions . They do think . They must be very sad to loose their own .

reply to post by Z07MB


Dearly befeathered we are gandered together here today to morn our feathered friend. Don't let sparrow overcome you but covey together and ask for forgivness with our sings. Don't let his flying the coop beak your heart.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan

The corvids(crows,blue jays,magpies etc),have been shown to be incredibly intelligent birds who exhibit very close emotional ties with each other,especially family groups,so it comes as no surprise to me that they would mourn one of their own in this fashion,they really are remarkable creatures.