[kellyhound]

Crows are exceptionally intelligent, with problem-solving abilities and brain-to-body mass ratios comparable to great apes and human children aged 5 to 7.

While they lack a mammalian neocortex, their avian pallium contains densely packed neurons, matching primate-level cognitive processing through convergent evolution.

They live in complex family structures, communicate with distinct calls, understand recursion and even hold group gatherings around dead peers. Crows gaze so intense at a dead member of their own species because they are trying to determine the cause of death.

They inspect the body very closely for any external injuries that point to the talons of a hawk or the teeth of a cat etc. or is the bird lying near a particular shrub, a power line or a window that it might have flown into.

The rest sits in trees, on roofs etc to scan for possible threats so they can warn the gathering group.

Crows are opportunists. They don't just eat one type of food; they eat everything from seeds and insects to roadkill and human trash. To survive on whatever is available, they had to become master problem-solvers (like learning to drop hard nuts in front of moving cars to crack them open).

Only a few animals operate at an even higher cognitive level or match them in different ways when it comes to problem solving and intelligence like chimpanzees, orangutans, bottlenose dolphins, the octopus and elephants.