Crows can recognize geometric regularity

Kind of off topic but I just got back from the park and there is a public water bowl set out for dogs and a crow was manipulating something in the water - after a time my eyebrows went up as I realized the crow was softening some dried out discarded human food to make it easy to break up and eat!

I love crows so much. I had some in my backyard that I would give stuff too a lot. When I would leave in the morning for work, they would perch on my gutters and make clucking sounds while looking down at me. I'd wave and be on my way.

I made a terrible video of the event.

https://youtu.be/EnFAW-ZxAQ0

We have been very welcoming to the crows in our backyard and they now hang out with the chickens and ducks when they get leftovers / table scrapes.

Now they are arriving slightly before the hawks and other predators and scaring them off.

If you see crows randomly arrive, and look around, there is almost always a circling bird in the sky.

It's super cool.

They started washing their food in my bird bath like that. I had to put a stop to it once they started soaking dead rodents and things like that. A) gross, B) they don't need soaking. (:

Crows soak all their food in our (sorry, their) swimming pool! Sadly, that includes rodents too. I wonder if it is because of the chlorine that could potentially "clean" the food, or if they want to wash out sand, etc.

Been careful not to yell or approach abruptly and they definitely learn to recognize our faces, since we can get pretty close to them now.

They've been known to both wash the salt off french fries and dip chicken nuggets in sauce packs.

Anyone who's ever argued that you shouldn't feed crows because it interferes with nature hasn't figured out that crows already adopted to urban human-inhabited environments, and feeding them quality food (cat kibble is cheap and works) is very much a net positive. If you see crows with white feathers, that's malnutrition, and you should give them something good to eat.

Your second paragraph seems at odds with the perceived goals in the first.

I wouldn't be surprised if that crow's got a whole routine down: grab snack > hydrate snack > enjoy snack > judge the dog for drinking from its prep station

Imagine the parallel universe in which other species see humans preserving food in vinegar writing about it.. "that's my bathtub please don't put any cucumber in it"

Indeed, that's not clear... was trying to teach no rodents!

I can also recommend bulk roasted unsalted peanuts. They have some advantages: they're cheap, they don't crumble, so you can always have a few in your coat pocket, and they take some work from the crows. They'll enjoy the challenge, and you'll enjoy watching.

I once lived in territory of some ravens, and it was a deep pleasure to gradually become friends with one. It took maybe a year of consistent effort, but eventually he'd come hang out with me outdoors. I would say bits of Poe's "The Raven" to him, and when his turn came he'd respond with soft, friendly mutterings. He especially liked to visit when we'd grill and eat outdoors, as there was nothing he liked better than some some bone with bits of meat and gristle left on it.

Cashews are also great if you want to treat them. But we always bring kibble because most kibble is designed to be usable as a "sole" food covering a lot of nutritional needs at once. Extra points if you bring water and a flat bowl, they love to soften it up.