This story is brought to you byÌýBirdNote, a show that airs daily on public radio stations nationwide.
Do crows have funerals? We asked author , who with of the University of Washington, ÌýGifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans.ÌýHere’s Tony:
"A crowÌý'funeral'ÌýisÌýin general, where the deceased bird is surrounded by members of the same species, in significant numbers…"
"At a crossroads, I watched aÌýcrow had been hit by a car, laid to rest there on one side of the street.ÌýCrows descended from the trees, probably a hundred crows. In groups of maybe eight, ten, twelve, they would walk around that individual that was on the ground. And then they would fly off,Ìýand over a fifteen, twenty-minute period, eventually all the crows flew off, leaving that corpse of the crow in the road."
"Well what’s going on here seems to be a little more complicated than just paying homage. It’s very likely that the crows are learning from this experience. Is there danger here? Is there territory now opened up with the death of this crow? Is there a mate available, where before, there wasn’t? So all kinds of things are learned."
More storiesÌýof corvid intelligence can be found at .
Bird sounds are provided by at the , Ithaca, New York. Recorded by G.A. Keller.Ìý
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
Interview by Chris Peterson
© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org Ìý Ìý February 2015 Ìý Ìý Narrator: Mary McCann