|American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)|
The genus includes the crow (carrion crow or hooded crow), the rook, jay, jackdaw, the magpie and the large common raven. The genus has 40 or so members on all temperate continents except for South America, and some islands.
The Corvus makes up a third of the species in the Corvidae. Crows appear to have evolved in Asia from corvid stock which had evolved in Australia. The collective name for a group of crows is a flock or, more poetically, a murder.
Intelligence[change | change source]
They have a brain size (adjusted for body size) as large as some apes. The jackdaw and the European magpie have a nidopallium about the same relative size as the equivalent neocortex in chimpanzees, and significantly larger than is found in the gibbon.
References[change | change source]
- "Murder of Crows, etc". Word-detective.com. Retrieved 2011-11-12.
- Winkler, Robert (August 8, 2002). "Crow makes wire hook to get food". National Geographic. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
- "A Murder of Crows". Nature. PBS video. 2010-10-24. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
New research indicates that crows are among the brightest animals in the world.
- Of course, the absolute size of the brain is also important.
- nidopallium: the region of the avian brain that is used mostly for executive functions and other higher cognitive tasks.
- Rogers, Lesley J.; Kaplan, Gisela T. (2004). Comparative vertebrate cognition: are primates superior to non-primates?. New York, New York: Springer. p. 9. ISBN 0-306-47727-0.
- Sewall, Katy 2015. The girl who gets gifts from birds. BBC News Magazine. 
- BBC News Magazine.