Which crow is black? Correct answer: None of them

Crow, I believe everyone knows this bird. As the saying goes, "all crows are black." When you see a bird in the sky that is pitch black from the tip of its beak to its toes, it is basically correct to blurt out the name "crow."

For example, the species on today's calendar, the small-billed crow (Corvus corone). Image: Richard Bartz / wiki commons

However, what we usually call "crows" are actually several species of birds under the genus Corvus of the family Corvidae. In China, common ones include small-billed crows, large-billed crows, bald-nosed crows, ravens, etc.; moreover, the habitats and activity areas of various crows often overlap, so it is not easy to distinguish a specific crow from a group of blackbirds at a glance.

All crows are black? Not really!

Although "black" is a key feature for us to identify crows, in fact, no crow is truly "black" . If you look closely, under certain angles of sunlight, those seemingly black feathers will appear blue-purple or blue-green with a metallic luster.

It's still a small-billed crow. Doesn't it look blue? Image: Diginatur / wiki commons

These beautiful colors are very difficult for our human eyes to recognize. Maybe, in the eyes of crows, they are all wearing beautiful clothes in bright red and purple . (The crow's inner thoughts: Humph... stupid humans...)

Cultural "social" crow

Since Lorenz, the founder of animal behavior , Corvidae has been regarded as a very important representative animal in the study of bird behavior.

Corvids (specifically, the European magpie Pica pica) are one of the few animals known to pass the mirror test , and corvids are one of the few animals known to use tools .

Note: The mirror test is to test whether animals can recognize that the image in the mirror is themselves. It is often used to determine whether animals have self-awareness, but the experimental method is somewhat controversial.

In an experiment, magpies seemed to be able to recognize themselves in a mirror. Image: Prior H et al. / PLoS biology (2008)

However, simply being “highly intelligent” does not make crows special. What really attracts behavioral researchers is that corvids are very, very rare animals that have their own “culture”.

“We jackdaws are literate.” Photo: David Tipling / naturepl.com

In order for a population to form a "culture", the animals that make up this population need to have strong memory and learning abilities , both of which are no problem for crows. Lorenz mentioned in his book "The Ring of King Solomon": If you hold a black object in your hand, jackdaws (crows in a broad sense) may think that you have hurt their kind and are a threat, thus triggering their alarm and defensive behavior; if the defensive behavior is triggered many times, soon all the jackdaws in a certain area will remember your face and attack you when they see you, even if they have not seen you "hurt jackdaws" with their own eyes.

"I'm telling you, it was that fool." A jackdaw at Herstmonceux Castle. Photo: Oast House Archive / Geograph

From the above description, we can understand that social crows can not only "remember" something, but also pass this information to other crows in the same habitat in some way, so that they can also "learn" about it. This common cognition (consensus) formed among the same species within a certain range and passed on and inherited through learning and communication is a manifestation of culture .

A group of crows seen in the Beijing Zoo in December 2017. After a few crows started the game of snatching plastic bags, more and more crows joined in. If this form of entertainment becomes popular, it will form a unique culture for this group of crows. Image: Elang

There are crows in culture

Not only do crows have culture, but there are also crows in culture.

As an animal with a highly adaptable nature and a wide distribution range, crows can be found in the records of many civilizations .

Although the word "crow" now comes to mind with some not-so-good words, in ancient China, crows were called "black birds" or "yang birds". In totem culture, the " three-legged golden crow " is a symbol of the sun and auspiciousness. Do you remember the story of Hou Yi shooting down the sun? The nine suns shot by the magic arrows turned into the three-legged crow when they fell to the ground.

The three-legged crow in a Han Dynasty mural. Image: Wiki Commons

In Western culture, the imagery represented by crows is even richer.

People seem to have observed that crows are "smarter" than other birds in many ways. Therefore, crows are sometimes regarded as a symbol of "wisdom". Many literary and artistic works use crows as a symbol of "prophet". For example, in "Game of Thrones", there is the three-eyed crow with mysterious powers such as psychic, foreknowledge and historical retrospection; in the "Warcraft" series, there is the storm crow (druid? Druids should turn into fat chickens and dance...); in the "Harry Potter" series, there is the Ravenclaw College (literally translated as "Raven's Claw"), which uses intelligence and sharpness as a selection condition.

#TIL (Today I Learned)

The British government pays a fee every year to the ravens on the Tower of London , because it is said that if the ravens on the Tower of London fly away, England will be destroyed...

On the other hand, since crows are scavengers and have black feathers, people often associate "crows" with images such as "death" and "darkness", which has led to the creation of many dark images and stories, which even affect real life - such as the " Plague Doctor " who is responsible for treating patients with the Black Death, and the god of death Ryuk in "Write Your Name in My Little Black Book" and "Death Note" (Ryuk's image is similar to the classic character "Crow" in the movie "The Crow" in some aspects)...

The image of a plague doctor during the Black Death outbreak. The picture shows Doktor Schnabel von Rom (meaning "bird-beaked doctor from Rome"), painted by Paul Fürst in 1656, and the colorist is unknown. Image: Wiki Commons

As an ordinary animal with a little bit of cleverness, and mixed with a lot of bad intentions , crows certainly have nothing to do with "auspicious" or "ominous". They just play their roles dutifully. If we really want to blame them, we humans are probably to blame for our big imaginations .

“What can I say to you?” Photo: Sarefo / wiki commons

Author of this article: Yilang Elang