As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a commander of crows. If you need a baseline, it occupies the same place on the coolness scale as a wizard. I imagine whistling and all the crows circling the sky above me, starting to descend on my enemies, flocking around them and pecking them to no end…
The starlet of today’s story is several steps closer to this dream, though, as she’s got a crow who responds to the cute name of “Buddy”, recently even bringing a whole entourage of family members along.
More info: Reddit
If you're patient, you can become a regular Disney princess, being loved and showered with attention by wild animals
Image credits: GabLunB (the actual photo)
A poster took it to the TrueOffMyChest community to "vent" about a crow that she regularly feeds bringing her babies to show her
Image credits: midnightsun420
Image credits: Ralph (not the actual photo)
She's been feeding mama crow for 3 years now, dubbing it "Buddy" frequently and even getting a response
Image credits: midnightsun420
Buddy once again came to visit the poster, but this time with a whole bunch of her kids, who she fed the food to
Image credits: midnightsun420
She even managed to get a video of Buddy saying "Buddy, buddy!" and a picture of the happy crow family
Midnightsun420, our crow wizard, started laying the groundwork for her achievement last week over 3 years ago. I’ll also have you know that “wizard” is a gender neutral term. If you don’t believe me, you’re directly challenging Dumbledore’s authority, so take it up with him.
According to her recount, she started diligently feeding regular birds in her yard, when crows showed up one day. She looked up that they’re fans of unsalted peanuts or cat food kibbles, and got to work feeding the crows so they would become more comfortable with her presence.
She also called to them, using the word “buddy” a lot. In due time, one of the crows came down, replying “Buddy, buddy!” in its little crow voice, which Midnightsun even caught on video.
Mind you, it took 3 years for that to happen, but in my opinion, that only makes it even more special!
7 months after that, we arrive to today, with Buddy bringing her whole murder of kiddies along. Flocks of crows are called “a murder”, mostly based on old folk tales and superstitions, according to PBS.
Did you know that there are way more funny collective nouns for animals? For example, a group of bees is “a bike”, a load of iguanas is “a mess”, and little innocent caterpillars? Well, groups of them are ominously known as “armies”.
If you were being flown along by a group of bees, fell into a bunch of iguanas, and then got besieged by caterpillars, you could officially say “I was riding my bike, when I got into a huge mess and – bet you weren’t seeing this coming – I was attacked by an army!”
Image credits: BenGrantham (not the actual photo)
Enough of the silliness, let’s get back to Midnight’s story. So, the crow brought her kiddies along, sharing food dispensed by the poster. Before leaving, the crow gave a coo to Midnightsun, which is too cute. She also even managed to snap a picture of them all!
Bored Panda reached out to Midnight to ask her some questions about her time with the crows and she graciously responded!
Midnightsun is unsure whether Buddy ever brought her partner along to see her. “Before the babies arrived, which was months ago, I noticed that Buddy did start bringing a friend along, a smaller crow and much more timid. That’s when I joked with my partner, 'Maybe Buddy will bring babies!' How right I was.”
Midnight leaves little gifts out for the crows. She’s learned that they’re attracted to red things. By accident, something red-colored ended up in the burn pit and the crows came around to check it out. “They like to search around it when they know it isn’t hot. You can tell they’re extremely curious.”
She still cannot believed that this has happened. It all started with Midnight’s mom’s enthusiasm when the murders of crows started visiting her yard.
“Had it not been for that, I wouldn’t have been blessed with this opportunity, the people who have shared their own stories with corvids to me.”
Buddy has brought her babies over for the last 2 weeks. She doesn’t know why she is so special to have been chosen by Buddy and the crows, but she hopes that the crow momma keeps sharing these little moments with her in the future.
Image credits: Bumblebee (not the actual photo)
Their smart behavior is enabled by the superb intelligence of crows, who can apparently create and use tools! In some sources they’re described as having the same intelligence as a 7-year-old child, which is pretty major, considering the size of their brain. One of the more impressive things animals of the crow family, corvids, can do is stack rocks in narrow containers of water, like glasses and jugs, so the water level will rise and they can drink from it. If that’s not a clear sign of intelligence and tool use, I don’t know what is.
Another really interesting thing is that crows give gifts to their friends! A girl showed off her collection of corvid gifts, which included things like pieces of glass, paperclips and small bits of metal, even a rotting crab claw at one point, which her mother had to dispose of.
It’s uncertain why they do it, but for us humans, it sure does feel good to get gifts from anyone, never mind little creatures. It’s like it’s saying “you’re my little Disney princess.”
If you’d like to become a princess, a crow-wizard, or simply a friend of your winged yard tourists, be sure to do some research on what kind of food they like and what you can do so they’re safe, happy, and comfortable.
Midnightsun’s story got almost 12k upvotes and 411 comments at the time of writing this article. Commenters shared how cool her experiences are and they also shared their own experiences.
Have you had experiences with any bird flocks of your own? We’re waiting for them in the comments!
The comments shared crow facts as well as their own experiences with the birds
