Intelligence in crows.

     Everyday a crow(or crows, I can't differentiate between two :) ) comes and sits on our window sill making loud requests for food. My mom keeps some food for him everyday, and this has been going for years now.
     The suprising fact is this however - when myself or my dad goes to put food near the sill, the crow simply flies away and comes back only when he is sure that there is no one near the window. But, when my mother goes near the window, he does not feel insecure! In fact, he does not fly off even when my mom's hands are close to him to put food. I wondered whether it was due to difference in clothing or overall appearance(from the crow's POV that is :) ) or some other factor. My mother said, that the crow 'recognizes' her. I believed that was not possible, until... I came across this amazing video! Especially the episode narrated starting at 4:19.




     We often, so much, underestimate the animals living around us. Their brains make them do a variety of things in order to stay alive, and even this is a big feat! We look with awe when a VTOL takes off and lands, but we hardly appreciate the feat a crow or sparrow performs when they land precariously on a thin branch of a tree. Of course, the comparison is not apples-to-apples, but the fact I want to strees is that, birds and animals have a superbly strong, real-time physics engine* with an amazingly fast feedback loop built right into their tiny brains.
Just another wonder of great Nature...

* - for lack of a better word

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