Ode to Corvidae

Where I am currently (temorporarily) living, they've got Magpies, Steller's Jays and Crows. I grew up with Steller's Jays- a pair of them nested outside my bedroom window all through high school and they acted as my 5 o'clock alarm. Here, they come right down to the back porch and scold the cat through the glass door. She ate their hatchlings this summer, and I'm convinced that, while they probably don't understand the details, they remember a greivous offense. Steller's Jays are named after one of my favorite naturlists, Georg Wilhelm Steller, who lived in the first half of the 18th century and left his name on a long list of animals in Eastern Russia and Western North America. His namesakes include the Steller Sea Cow (a now extinct 25' long 10 ton manatee-like creature that lived in the Behring Sea), the Steller Sea Lion (weighing in at 3 tons, they are the largest eared seal, found from Russia along Alaska to central California), the Steller Sea Eagle (the world's heaviest bird at 15-20lbs, found in Russia and Japan), Steller's Eider (a sea duck found in Russia and Alaska), Cryptochiton stelleri, the Gumboot Chiton (a giant- 13"- lumpy looking mullosc found along the shores of the Northern Pacific), and Artemisia stelleriana, a species of wormwood.

Anyway, back to the corvids. We had American Crows where I grew up as well, and they were a common sight by the side of the road or in parks and beaches. One time my dog caught a crow in the back yard. We were sitting in the living room and suddenly realized the sky was black with hundreds of crows (a "murder" of crows). There was the dog, crouched in the middle of the yard with an uninjured bird in her paws. She was frozen in fear. We called her in the house and eventually the birds dispersed. I have never seen so many birds at one time and I have no doubt they they would have soon begun to attack her and the results would not have been pretty.

They've got magpies here too- a crow sized bird and the prettiest corvid I've seen with their iridescent green tails and flashing wings. I've got no other experience with magpies, but they share the corvid wit and bravery, strutting along the street, throwing sidelong glances at cars and pedestrians.


My favorite of the corvids is the Common Raven. People often don't understand the difference between ravens and crows, and certainly from a distance they both simply look like a black bird. However up close or in comparison, the differences are striking. A mature Common Raven is between 22 to 27" in length, with a wingspan of 45 to 51"! Compare this to the crow which is 16-21" with a wingspan of 33-39". This is like mistaking a hawk with a pigeon. The raven's beak is much heavier and thicker than a crows as well. Ravens nest in groups (an "unkindness" or a "terror" of ravens) of up to 800 birds and are monogamous, sometimes for life. They have over 50 distinct vocalizations, sounding at various times like a gurgling toilet or a purring cat.



To the Native Americans where I live, Raven is a a trickster who brought fire to man and hung the sun and moon in the sky, he created lakes and rivers and taught man many tricks and skills for surviving in an unforgiving environment. However, in other cultures, raven is unmistakebly associated with evil. During the military invasions and plagues throughout Europe in earlier centuries, the raven dined on human corpses, and they apparently loitered near the sites designated for human executions. The word “ravenstone” means a place of execution in old English. The Germans have a word, “rabenaas,” meaning raven's carrion, denoting a person who should be hanged.


Mythology aside, corvids are certainly one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. Based on a brain-to-body ration, corvid brains are equal in size to a chimp or a dolphin and only slightly smaller than a human's. While observers have often seen crows using tools to accomplish tasks, a recent study found that crows can use multiple tools for complex jobs. Their ability to imagine possibilities and draw conclusions is apparently more highly developed than apes.

Like so many things in life, our familiarity with corvids has bred comtempt. We are so used to seeing crows at the dump or jays raiding the birdfeeder that we rarely even notice them anymore. Then, when you're least expecting it, a raven will fly right over your head, the beat of his wings heavy in your ears. You will be drinking your morning coffee and glance out the kitchen window to find the bright black eye of a magpie, fascinated with your ritual. Don't forget that we share this life with other creatures and we do not know what goes on behind their gaze. Don't fall into the trap of believing that there is nothing going on outside our walls.