Monday, July 7, 2008

Pied crow vs. milk carton

The milk carton enrichment experiment wasn't just for the ravens. In fact, Cherry the pied crow seems to have had more fun with the milk carton than anyone else. She was recently observed making different sounds into the milk carton, presumably to hear the difference.

This video shows her right after I first gave her the carton. I put a few mealworms in just to make it interesting. Cherry often takes donation or recycles visitors' soda cans at our education programs. She's a cool bird and very affectionate.

6 comments:

  1. wat a wonderfull bird! We are getting one this weekend.. a young female Pied Crow! If you have more of these nice video's or stories you would like to share.. please send me an email: dejong.jr@gmail.com

    Regards,
    Jutta

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  2. Lucky you! The pied crows are among my favorite birds at the sanctuary. They are sweet, bossy, funny birds and a delight to work with. Cherry, the bird in this video is probably my favorite, but I love them all.

    I'll be posting more crow pics and videos soon. Did you catch Othello saying hello from a few days ago? They are expert mimics.

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  3. Hey! I've seen the video of Othello.. very cool bird :-).

    This is my Kiah:
    http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=107579155&albumID=1868512&imageID=31777578
    http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=107579155&albumID=1868512&imageID=31777578#a=1868512&i=31777583

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  4. Hey, I filled a milkcarton with papertowels (she loves them), some morio wurms and food for her.. to try it out.. but she's scared of the carton haha :-)..

    She makes the most cool sounds.. like a chicken.. and it looks like she's talks to us.. with a really high voice.. and quiet.. it's really cute!

    Do you have any tips.. what she would like and stuff? :-)

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  5. Crows definitely need enrichment, being so smart. Ours like foraging, so milk cartons and the cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels works. They love plastic whiffle balls with all the holes. You can put paper or strips of cloth in the holes for them to try out.

    One thing I am planning to try this winter is putting a toy or treat in the center of 2-3 coffee filters, tie at the top so you make a little package, and suspend from the perch with a piece of sisal or leather. The idea is that the bird has to pull the toy up and then unwrap it to get the treat!

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