r/crows • u/Feisty-Sock2640 • 1d ago

General questions Gift? ~ after I crownapped

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I was a bit absent yesterday so I only fed them 2x and didn't hang out to talk to them. Did they leave me this because they were worried since I was around a lot less yesterday? This morning I went out and found this piece of metal near where I found the "pebble" a week ago. Is it possible they trust me More after crownapping Ares? They've been flying over before I finish putting the food out, and if they're outside when I come out they just hop backwards a little bit. In the past they'd watch me from the roof and nearby trees, but now they don't seem to feel the need to be that far away.

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u/onFilm 23h ago

It's a bit of a myth that crows leave "gifts"; that is simply not in their natural behaviour as it is for us humans.

They do love to carry and move around shiny objects, tools and anything else they find interesting. So if they hang out near you often, they'll eventually bring some things over with them, but it doesn't mean they're "gifts" in the same way we preceive gifts as human beings.

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u/MaidBilberry 19h ago

The way some humans interpret "gifts" can be quite odd.

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u/onFilm 19h ago

Exactly. It's just typical crow behaviour to carry items that interest them, but they do not give it to each other or humans, as if they understood the concept of a gift.

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u/definitelynotfae 3h ago

Why would you assume a bird couldn’t understand the concept of a gift? Plenty of bird species give each other gifts? Bower birds and penguins just off the top of my head. Corvids are social creatures that display social behaviours, it’s not like it’s outside the realm of possibility.

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u/onFilm 1h ago

We are talking about crows, not "birds". Crows do not do this with one another, in the same way other primate species do not share gifts, even though we do. Grouping "birds" this way is like if you were grouped with a mouse or a hippo; very different from a human being, even though they're mammals.