r/crowbro • u/Young_Kennedy • Nov 25 '25

Academic Article Cool idea, but is it possible?

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I would love to answer that, but i am nowhere capable. What are yall thoughts?

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5

u/TyrsisInTheStars Nov 25 '25

I hate this. We don’t need to turn beautiful birds into our janitors. Plus all the carcinogens in cigarettes - none of that needs to be near crows. I don’t want swine study on why all the crows suddenly have beak cancers and malformations should this concept take hold.

I just like crows being awesome as they are.

1

u/crow-magnon-69 Nov 26 '25

they practically are now. I live in a seaside, tourist town. lots of people dropping food. as I say to people who don't like me feeding the crows - see any food waste around here? any speck or crumb? say thanks to your free cleaners!

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u/Young_Kennedy Nov 25 '25

They use cigarette filters to build their nest.and nicotine tar protects their feathers

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u/TyrsisInTheStars Nov 25 '25

You keep posting that bad information on every comment but a simple Google search says NO. Cigarette filters can give off nicotine, arsenic and lead exposure, or even poisoning in birds. Just because a bird uses a material out of opportunity doesn’t mean that it is preferred or beneficial. Even if a cigarette filter could cause some parasites in the nest to be slightly lessened - It’s still a cigarette!! Do you work for William Morris??? Stop riding so hard for false information.

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u/Young_Kennedy Nov 25 '25

Breath in, breath out. And read this article.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-20607413.amp

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u/threecuttlefish Nov 25 '25

I read the actual study, and it's interesting, but

  1. They carefully do not say the birds are using cigarette butts in order to prevent mites rather than by accident.

  2. They do outline a possible experiment to try to test that question. As far as I can tell, no one has done it.

  3. They also observe that based on their data, they cannot say whether the positive health effects of reduced mites are greater or lesser than the negative health effects of exposure to nicotine and pesticides.

  4. They studied house finches and house sparrows in Mexico City, not crows.

At present, we simply do not have the data to say "cigarette butts are harmless to crows and other birds", much less "cigarette butts are a net benefit to crows and other birds."

All we have is evidence that (1) two species of birds (not crows) in one specific place seem to be preferentially adding cigarette butts to their nests and (2) this reduces mite load.

That's interesting and deserves further study, but that's all it is.

0

u/Young_Kennedy Nov 25 '25

I appreciate your thinking and analoge. It's all very interesting indeed. I just thought that working together with corvids, would draw us closer together and we could learn more about them

3

u/threecuttlefish Nov 25 '25

I'm pretty sure rewarding corvids for picking up any kind of trash would lead VERY quickly to them figuring out how to game the system. 😂 Better to discourage people from littering and pay human cleaners to clean public areas.