Wildlife Rescue Center Uses Surrogate Crow Toy to Help Feed Orphaned Baby Birds
Corvids, a large group of birds including crows and ravens, are a particularly intelligent and social animal. They have complicated family relationships and have even been known to create associations with people in their areas who feed them or otherwise take care of them, bringing them gifts of shiny objects or other treats.
Because they are so smart and social, it’s especially important for wildlife rescue organizations to take precautions when rehabilitating orphaned baby crows for rerelease in the wild. They do not want the crow to learn to rely on humans for food. To this end, they use what is called a surrogate.
One of the biggest challenges in wild animal rehabilitation is the issue of “habituation” —the process whereby wild animals lose their natural wariness around humans, and come to act more like tame of domesticated creatures. This can cause many problems for them when they return to the wild, such as not being able to hunt or forage for their own food, or making themselves a nuisance to people they may come across.
This is especially difficult for animals who know how very useful humans can be when it comes to getting food. And crows are among the cleverest birds around.
Just How Smart Are Crows?
Very.
“Crows are very intelligent birds, with the largest brain-to-body ratio of any bird,” writes the Sweetbriar Nature Center. “They can recognize themselves in mirrors, can remember the faces of people, use tools, play, can work in teams, plan for the future, assess problems, and think them through. Crows have been observed dropping nuts in the road so that the tires of passing cars will crack them open, and cooperating at a drinking fountain to get water, one crow holding the button down while the other takes a sip of water.”
Rehabilitating Baby Birds
“When feeding our tiny crow patient we use a surrogate plastic, mama crow,” reads the caption over this video of a darling baby crow being fed. “This decoy mama helps feed the baby each time so the crow doesn’t imprint on humans.”
When feeding baby birds, the workers at this rescue facility also wear mirrored masks so all the birds see when they look up is the reflection of more birds, rather than human faces.
It’s a complicated business, raising orphaned birds, but the Sweetbriar Nature Center on Long Island is devoted to trying to make the best of a bad situation for this chick. In an ideal world, this lone chick would grow up with plenty of nest mates, but it was not to be.
“Since crows are social and form close-knit family groups that stay together for up to five generations we knew how important it was to find other baby crows for this little one to grow up and be released with,” they write in the caption. “We called all the centers on Long Island and unfortunately, no other hospital had any baby crows to share.”
Undaunted, they widened their search. “We then called Raptor Trust in New Jersey. They had twelve tiny baby crow patients and were willing to add ours to the mix. We were so fortunate that volunteer Jim and his wife were willing to take the long drive and transferred this baby crow patient for us. We will surly miss this little Corvid but we know how important it is that it grows up with others of the same species.”
That’s the heartbreaking truth behind every wildlife rescue. If you do your job right, one day you will say goodbye to the critter you saved—forever.
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