23/10/2026
🐾 Fun Fact Friday: Spooky Season Edition
Crows are some of the smartest animals on the planet, and with Halloween creeping up, we couldn't resist shining a light on our favourite feathery brainiacs. 🖤
Here's the thing about crows: they don't just use tools, they make them. New Caledonian crows craft hooks and probes from twigs and leaves to fish grubs out of tight spaces, then carry their favourite tools around with them for later. That's not instinct, that's craftsmanship.
They also remember faces. Not just for a day or a week, but for years. One study found crows recognising a specific human face more than 2.7 years after a single encounter, and they'll pass that grudge on to their flock and their chicks. If a crow has decided it doesn't like you, chances are its whole family agrees.
Add long-term memory, social learning (young crows watch and copy the older ones), and problem-solving skills that rival a human child of around four to seven years old, and you've got a bird that can plan, cooperate and hold a grudge, all while looking like it's doing nothing at all.
So this Halloween, if you feel watched from a lamppost, you probably are. Crows are watching, learning and remembering! 👀
