CROWS! how smart are they?

I've got a small resident group of crows, four of them actually so I'm hesitant to call it a murder. Maybe it's an attempted murder. They have not been a serious issue in my garden but I know that could become a problem. I like them though, I like listening to them and they tolerate me pretty well, no longer giving lots of alarm calls or flying away when they see me. I throw table scraps out most evenings by the old abandoned shed for the possum that lives there and often in the early mornings the crows are there finishing off what the possum didn't want. The other day as an experiment I tossed a little shelled corn out and sure enough pretty soon the crows stopped and took it.  

I've seen a documentary about them where it was established that they can recognize individual humans and know who they like and who they don't. I also saw a video of an experiment were they utilized sticks as tools to extract insects from cavities and used rocks to displace water in a cylinder to make a piece of food float to where they could reach it. I've know of examples where if you feed them that they will bring you presents like shiny pieces of tin foil or plastic dinking straws. I think that would be pretty cool, to have a crow bring me presents. They can establish relationships, perhaps friendships, with individual humans. I've also read that they understand other things as well, for example that if you shoot one and hang it's dead body in your corn patch that they will get the message. So they are pretty darned smart.

If I can make friends with these crows. Give them food and get them to understand that I don't want to hurt them might I also get them to agree not to bother my garden? My dog's have always know that I like them and that I feed them and when they do something I don't like I can just yell, hey! stop that! And since they like me too, they stop.

Once we are friends and know each other if I see one in the corn can I just yell HEY! GET OUT OF THERE! Will work like it does with dogs? Cause I don't want to do the other thing.

I love crows. Have had some almost spooky encounters with crows, think they're brilliant, and would be glad to have an attempted murder of crows in my yard.

Unless I had small poultry or something those crows wanted and I wanted them to leave alone. I think they certainly recognize you, and may be very glad you feed them. But I wouldn't expect them to not go after something very attractive out of obligation, even humans have a hard time with this! I don't think they remember kindness-- they remember a good place to find food. Dogs are (sometimes) worried about consequences later, crows will just fly away and find some other opportunity.
[I'd still try to make friends with them, though, and maybe encourage them to stay away from my garden]

They are great birds, a ranch near the house where I grew up kept a caged crow that could talk like a parrot. ( I'm not recommending this; it was probably not the happiest life for a crow.)

I suspect you would need to provide them some other food to keep them off your crops.  Maybe if you had a crow-buffet of food that appeals to them but not you, and you also showed them off your crops.

they’re very smart, and i think they do remember kindness, but i have doubts that they differentiate between things you’re happy to give them and things you don’t want them messing with. but i think chasing them out of corn one day is not going to be a problem. we feed crows here, and there are a lot of them - we usually have multiple nesting pairs in the woods above the house and morning gatherings usually include 20+ birds - they do a great job of chasing off hawks, but they know that they’re welcome here, so they do take some liberties. they like trying to harass the chickens (the chickens largely ignore them) and have figured out that they can get to one of the chicken feeders, so have been taking a little extra tax for their work.

I have heard of people establishing such good relations with crows, that the birds will not only leave their garden alone, they even chase other birds away from it!

I have no idea how to get to that point.

Cheezburger.com has some interesting crow stories.

Mark Reed wrote:
I've seen a documentary about them where it was established that they can recognize individual humans and know who they like and who they don't.

They can even describe individual humans to other crows.
Birds have smaller and more energy-efficient neurons, so i would not rule out that they are actually smarter than us.

They also live a long time and have remarkable memories.

This link should prove useful in a permie way - it's from bird watchers. All about observed habits and such!

https://www.birdwatchingusa.org/crow-lifespan

Thanks everybody for the comments. I think I'll try the making friends route. Already made some progress there as they no longer fly away or go crazy with alarm calls when they see me.

I have crows here that seem to know me. I put food out for them on the far side of my place. some days they sit in the trees and wait for me - and make a fuss when I get there.
one night (around midnight)  - crazy late for a guy that gets up 3:30-0400 without an alarm clock - as I was startled awake by a crash - and as I was getting dressed and awake enough to figure things out - the grid was down - no lights at  any of the neighbors. car versus power pole was my guess.
I cut through my woods to see if everyone was ok, the sheriffs arrived and I headed back - kept hearing something in the trees just behind me - turned on my headlamp - and it was a crow! it followed me back to the house, then went back in the woods. in the dark. I am still blown away by that - I think it was making sure I made it ok.

fast forward to a month ago - and an Owl killed one of my chickens just before dark - it made it inside the pen, and was between the rest of the girls and the coop - I went to scare it off - not thinking "predator" - very glad there was a piece of chicken wire between us. would have lost eyes/face - been hurt bad - was crazy fast. finally got him out and the girls put away - several hours - and the crows have not left here hardly at all since the next day - they have been haranging that owl every day.
I think I have made friends with them.  the HUGE Bards owl will get run off of the place by them, but it keeps coming back - so looks like a forever problem - poor girls don't get any more free range time - so will be expanding their area with cover soon. I got to see a single crow land on a branch just a couple feet from the owl yesterday - and he was chattering at him - like he was taunting him - had me laughing for a couple hours.
I do think they can recognize people from what I have seen. and yes, I talk to them.  is that weird?

Thought I'd do a little update on my crows. Of the three, one no longer flies away when I walk or drive by where I throw out their food. Better yet, one doesn't even fly up into the nearby trees. They don't seem to like when I try talking to them, well they are OK with English, they don't respond at all but when I try to speak crow, it seems to piss them off.

They make various noises but mostly just the same caw, caw. They do it with many different pitches and frequencies, I'm sure it all means different things. If I hope to establish verbal communication, it's going to take a lot more observation and practice. I speak dog, coyote, cat, chicken, turkey, horse, cow and owl fairly well, but I've been doing it for many years. I'm a complete novice with crow. It is also, I think a bit more nuanced, coyote is like that too.

Like the folks here say, Crows (and all their relatives like Ravens and Jays) are very smart birds. As a HS and College kid I worked for a veterinarian that specialized in birds. I'd rescued a baby crow from a nest that had fallen out of a tree. I raised it to adulthood (had the bird for about 6 months before he just flew off) and somewhere along the line I took the bird in to be evaluated by this vet. At the time he claimed crows tested at about the intelligence of an average 12 YO human on non-verbal IQ tests. Personally I have both crows and ravens in the area and they are wicked smart. I have both ducks and chickens that lay eggs and more than once I've watched them walk boldly INTO MY BARN, grab an egg and then fly off with it. Part of the problem is my Pekin hens in particular seem to lay just about anywhere. Sometimes they even seem surprised an egg falls out their backend! My neighbor laughs as the crows fly to his driveway then drop the eggs to crack them and enjoy a lovely egg breakfast.

It frosts me occasionally to have my eggs stolen, but I have mad respect for their intelligence. I've decided its a small price to pay to watch these fascinating birds.

Crows have visited us:)
They trade with us and bring us gifts… rusty nails, shards of glass etc.
From what I have read they’re very very intelligent, remember people and hold grudges.. I love them.