“There were three ravens sat on a tree, they were as black as they could be. … Then one of them said to his make, where should we our breakfast take?” That’s a ballad I often enjoy singing, from medieval times. The other day a crow left a messy commentary on the rowing club’s log book and reservation sheet and proceeded to sit as if he belonged, on our nearby sign making ear-piercing vocalizations. Maybe he was saying: “Dillon Reservoir is drying up.”

I think he was telling me it’s time to explore ravens and crows.

I remember seeing a crow on nature program on TV, using a stick as a tool and fashioning it to poke some bugs out of a hole. Using tools is an indicator of intelligence.

“To get at the mind of a crow is a great challenge, but to get in the mind of a raven, as I found in living with one for a year, is an even greater one. Ravens are, to enthusiasts like myself, at the top of the avian pyramid in mental attributes.”

-L. Kilham from “The American Crow and Common Raven”

There are probably more legends about crows and raven than any other bird. Legends date as far back to the ancient Greeks and Chinese. According to Greek mythology, the raven was originally a beautiful, silver-white bird, until it had the misfortune to tell Apollo that his human lover, Coronis, had rejected him for a mere man. Apollo turned the bird’s feathers black.

Of course, there’s Edgar Allen Poe’s poem – “The Raven”:

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! –

Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”

Crows were associated with death in many cultures, because they often could be found feeding on the remains of the dead. While swallows and storks are welcomed as signs of spring or childbirth, a gathering of crows is associated with some evil foreboding. But many American Indian tribes saw the crow as a wise adviser and the spirit of wisdom and the law. They have many, many legends about crows and ravens. The Norse god Odin used two crows – Hugin and Munin, to represent thought and memory – as his daily observers of the world.

Crows, ravens, and magpies appear to have the largest forebrains, as well as the largest overall brain size among birds – and contain an exceptionally large number of brain cells. Crows, ravens, magpies and jays make complex decisions and show every sign of enjoying a rich awareness. Ravens may have the innate ability to count. German ethnologist, Otto Koehler, tested this theory by presenting a raven with a group of objects, ranging from two to six. Beside the group of objects were a set of five boxes, each labeled by black dots, two to six. The raven’s was to match the number of objects with the number of black dots on the lid of the box. Apparently, in trial after trial, the raven successfully accomplished the counting task and was rewarded with food. Moreover, crow and raven intelligence is evidenced by their manipulative skills over other animals. Ravens will call wolves and coyotes to food sources so they can open up the carcass, making the meat more accessible to them, or they will wait for birds with specialized foraging skills to make a catch, like the fishing ability of the blue heron, and then seize the catch for themselves. A tame crow has reportedly “picked up” a pet cow’s leash to parade him around the homestead.

So what is the difference between a crow and raven? Crows average around 17 inches in height and ravens about 24-27. A raven weighs about four times that of a crow. A raven’s wing sometimes makes a prominent “swish, swish” sound, while a crow’s wing beat is usually silent. Ravens have pointed wings, while crows have a more blunt and splayed wing tip. Crows have a fan-shaped tail (squared-off), while raven tails are long and wedge-shaped. Besides having a bigger, more powerful bill, a raven’s bill is curved, while a crow has a more-or-less flat bill. Additionally, atop a raven’s bill is a tuft of hairs absent on crows. Crows are more at home in the urban landscape, given their ability to be more socially inclined than ravens. A crow “caws” and a raven’s has a low and slow croak; crows exhibit at least two dozen different calls, while ravens can express themselves with 20-100’s of different vocalizations.

Crows and ravens are particularly sensitive to West Nile Virus and die-offs often precede an outbreak of human illness by two to four weeks. Many thousands of these birds have died from this virus in the past 10 years all over the U.S. If you see a crow flapping its wings, beware: A big accident is about to happen; an ancient Chinese superstition.

Members of the American Society of Crows and Ravens, founded in 1982, like to quote the author Henry Ward Beecher: “If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.”

Breckenridge resident Dr. Joanne Stolen is a former professor of microbiology from Rutgers now teaching classes at CMC. Her scientific interests are in emerging infectious diseases and environmental pollution.