Animal · Germany, France, Netherlands
Carrion crow
Corvus corone — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The carrion crow is that black bird on the lamp post which seems to be watching you, and it probably is. Crows can recognise individual human faces.
Picture credit: Alexis Lours (CC BY 4.0) · Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart (CC BY 4.0) · Syrio (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the carrion crow live?
Home: Fields, woods, coasts and city squares.
In the wild it lives in these countries: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Russia, China, Japan.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown: 48–52 cm long, wingspan 84–100 cm. It weighs about 0.5 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.
The story behind it
Crows do things that used to be reserved for apes. They can tell numbers apart up to thirty. They can learn one rule, then drop it and switch to another when the task changes — something that takes real flexibility, not just memory. And they recognise faces: not only other crows, but individual people, which means the crow on your street may know the difference between you and your neighbour. That last ability has a hard edge to it. A crow that has had a bad experience with someone remembers, and in a group the wariness spreads, so a whole neighbourhood of crows can end up avoiding one particular person. It is also why crows do so well in cities. A place full of rules, routines and individual humans is hard for most birds and easy for one that can keep track.
Find it on the globe
Carrion crow is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Can a crow really recognise me?
Yes. Crows recognise human faces as well as crow faces, and they remember what a particular person did. In a group that memory spreads, so birds that never met you can still be wary of you.
What is the difference between a crow and a raven?
Size and tail. A raven is much bigger, with a heavy beak and a wedge-shaped tail; a crow is about half a metre long with a straight-edged tail. They are close relatives, not the same bird.
Why do crows do so well in cities?
Because a city rewards exactly what they are good at: remembering places and people, changing a habit when it stops working, and eating almost anything that turns up.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: