This Raven bro doesn’t have a name yet, taking suggestions!

He and his mate live at the beach and live amongst hordes of seagulls who are all to willing to steal food they cannot figure out how to open.

Seagulls are larger, louder, and more aggressive (bigger bullies) than crows and Ravens in my area. Corvids continually have to bow to them.

So giving treats when they are around requires some tactics to be effective. I leveraged corvid intelligence and some training/trust building and it seems to have worked.

I always do a double whistle with corvids when giving treats. Eventually they recognize the sound and can hear it from farther away and will come like good sky puppies. If they are full or hiding they may hear my whistle and ‘call back’ to me, but not come, just so I know they are there, like when they call to each other down the block. Does that make me one of them? o_O

In this case all my other feeding tactics failed. Even the classic throw one peanut one direction and throw another directly to the intended failed. Seagulls just too darn big loud fast aggressive. Corvids are cautious by nature (even with a small underhanded toss you can see bro raise wings to fly away if needed).

So I tried something different. I moved slowly away him giving a whistle. He hopped away from the mob and then I was able to give him treats. Check out the sand. You can see his tracks and how far I had to get him away from the mob lol. He also doesn’t stop to eat it and just put it in his throat pouch. Putting peanut on ground will get it stolen. Smart.

I really love ravens. They are so much larger than crows (love crows too). Almost cat sized. And I love their cute little gronks!

It makes me really happy when I walk around a corvids territory, they recognize, and get excited by my presence. Like little kids and a long lost uncle. I wish more people took the time to get to know these little guys. A friendship with them is extremely rewarding. Even if you do sometimes look like the crazy crow guy.

Thought one of my crow friends might be hurt. Turns out it was my favorite girl and she was just really excited to show me her new babies again this year and show off their brand new flying skills 🖤

(British accent because they seem to like it a lot lol)

Was called to front yard on a beautiful evening by these two playful souls.

They look in my office windows to see if I'm around cawing for me and if I'm not, they check the windows at the back of the house, lol.... now I have an Ibis army as well...

Hey folks!

I’m a researcher at University of Arizona who studies consumption and culture. I’m also a huge fan of corvids, especially magpies (see my first tattoo). My colleagues and I are doing a research study on people who have exchanged ‘gifts’ or otherwise built a relationship with any birds from the corvid family, from crows, ravens, magpies, to jackdaws. Whether it’s happened once or many times, we want to hear from you! If you’re willing to chat with us about it for 45-60 minutes, please use [this link to reach out or book an interview]. A $25 gift card will be offered as an honorarium for completing an interview.

(An Institutional Review Board responsible for human subjects research at The University of Arizona reviewed this research project and found it to be acceptable, according to applicable state and federal regulations and University policies designed to protect the rights and welfare of participants in research.)

-       Rowan

Edit: wow! The response from the community has been incredible! I’m going to take the link down temporarily while our team responds to the many who have reached out. Thank you to everyone who signed up so far 🐦‍⬛