I'm reading an excellent book right now called In the Company of Crows and Ravens (review pending) and found a couple of uncanny videos illustrative of their capacity for ingenuity. The first involves modified tool use and the second, from Attenborough's Life of Birds, shows how crows can use human landscapes to their advantage.
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i love crows. they are so intelligent and have such attitude. i've seen the attenborough video before, but not the first. thanks.
and of course, i love every opportunity to brag about my "pet" crow, tom servo. tom servo is a wild fish crow who has been coming to my house every breeding season for years. he has a leg band (i've already gotten the number and reported a sighting) and is tame enough that i can remain outside within about five feet of the feeding station and he will come and collect his food (he eats cat food and prefers the kind with the filling in the middles). he disappears after his chicks fledge and reappears the next spring. he is tame enough that if there is no food out there he will caw at the house (sometimes actually on our back porch if there's a handy perch) until he sees someone. then he glares in the windows at us until we bring out the food. he has us trained well :). i wish i knew what his story was (i sent email to the original bander, but got no reply). here's a picture of my favorite crow.
i've already put the book you mentioned on my wish list, but i look forward to your review.
knobody:
Whereabouts do you live? I know a bander of crows.
cpp: gainesville, fl. according to the certificate i got from reporting his band number, tom servo was banded by a Dr. Michael Avery who apparently works for the USDA APHIS group. if you know him, ask him why he never replied to my email last year :).