10 Really Weird Crow Facts
Crows are a popular spirit animal, here are some interesting facts about them.
Crows living in suburban areas require only 10% of the nesting
territory that crows living in in the wilderness do, and are much more
tolerant of range overlap. They also will build fake nests to fool
predators.
Dubbed ‘Anting’ by John Marzluff, crows will crush an ant and rub it
all over themselves like perfume! The Formic Acid in the ants helps ward
off parasites.
Image of a Black Drongo 'Anting'
Pet crows give their owners names. This is identified by a unique
sound they make around specific people that they would not otherwise
make.
Female Crows mate for life, but males will cheat, which explains the next one:
Male crows have no penis. Their sperm is transferred from their
cloaca to the female cloaca and copulation only lasts 15 seconds. Its a
wonder the females are so loyal!
Crows can count to six!
Crows sunbathe for Vitamin D.
Odin the Crow Sunbathing
Healthy crows help crippled crows but they have a dark side. Crows
occasionally murder each other for reasons that mystify scientists.
Crows have been observed chasing sparrows into buildings in order to
stun them. The result is sparrow for lunch. Don’t worry, they pick on
birds their own size – mobbing crows can seriously injure hawks.
Scientists suspect an eagle was even killed by mobbing crows.
Crows
have been reported to eat over 1000 food items, including insects,
worms, berries, birds eggs and nestlings, small mammals, bats, fish,
snakes, frogs, salamanders, animal dung, grain, nuts, carrion, fried
chicken, hamburgers, Chinese food, french fries, and human vomit. They
can be weirdly picky though – an experiment showed crows prefer French
fries in a McDonald’s bag over those in a brown paper bag. To top it
off, a nestling can eat 100 grasshoppers in 3 hours.
Crow with a French Fry By Richard Brayton
Source: avesnoir.com