American crows: the ultimate angry birds?

Crows form mobs that scold dangerous people and naïve crows exposed to mobs learn to identify a dangerous person’s face, associate it with danger, and react accordingly

An American or northwestern crow (either Corvus brachyrhynchos or C. caurinus) near the end of Ravenna Creek slough adjacent to the Burke-Gilman Trail on the University of Washington campus, Seattle, WA. (Credit: Walter Siegmund / CC BY-SA 3.0).

Research has found that crows remember the faces of humans who have threatened or harmed them, and these memories probably last for the bird’s lifetime. Not only do crows scold dangerous people, but they include family members — and even strangers — into their mob. The hostile behaviour of crows within mobs allows naïve birds to indirectly learn about a dangerous person, and to also learn to associate that individual’s face with danger and react accordingly.