The fascinating behavior of crows has long captured the attention of both scientists and casual observers alike. One of the most mysterious and thought-provoking behaviors exhibited by these birds is the so-called “crow funeral.” These funerals can occur unexpectedly, wherever crows encounter a deceased member of their species. Farmers often witness these rituals after shooting unwanted crows in their fields, and powerline workers might observe them when a crow meets an unfortunate end from an electric shock. Sometimes, even in the heart of urban parks, a crow funeral might take place, all it takes is one dead crow and a fellow bird who spots it and starts calling out—Caw! Caw! The scene can quickly escalate into a gathering of crows, from a handful to sometimes as many as 60 or 70 birds. The birds typically remain silent for a brief period before erupting into loud, agitated calls, sometimes staying at the site for 15 to 20 minutes before scattering.

The Rise of Crows in Urban Areas

Crow populations have seen significant growth in many urban areas, including the Bay Area, in recent decades. For instance, annual bird counts by the Golden Gate Audubon Society reported only a few dozen crows in the 1980s. By 2018, that number surged to an estimated 2,500 crows in Oakland and 900 in San Francisco. Crows have adapted remarkably well to human environments, foraging through food in dumpsters and congregating in parks, community gardens, and near bodies of water. However, while crows are abundant in these urban spaces, witnessing a crow funeral remains a rare and intriguing event.

Kaeli Swift and Her Research on Crow Funerals

Kaeli Swift, a behavioral ecologist specializing in birds, has observed and studied hundreds of crow funerals over the years. About seven years ago, as a graduate student at the University of Washington, Swift embarked on a journey to better understand the significance of these funerals. Armed with a taxidermied crow and a clipboard, she sought to explore whether crows internalize the presence of a dead crow as a danger signal, learning from the event and using it to avoid similar threats in the future.

This study formed part of Swift’s broader interest in comparative thanatology, a relatively new field of science that explores how non-human animals respond to death. This area of study is particularly fascinating because it may offer insights into the evolutionary origins of human responses to death and rituals. “We are in a time where breaking down the barriers between humans and animals is becoming more accepted and exciting,” says Swift. “One way this is manifesting is in our growing understanding of how non-human animals attend to death.”

An American crow tries to mate with another dead crow © Dr Kaeli Swift

The Role of Crows in Human Folklore

Crows, like many members of the corvid family (which includes ravens and jays), have long been linked to human death in both folklore and scripture. For example, in the Bible, a raven is sent to guide Cain in burying his brother Abel. The term “murder” for a group of crows dates back to medieval times when crows scavenged battlefields, feasting on the bodies of fallen soldiers. Many Native American cultures also have stories about ravens playing a role in the origin of human life.

Swift acknowledges that while crows are not evolutionarily close to humans, there are striking similarities between human and crow behavior. Crows are highly social animals that form lasting bonds with one another, much like humans. They live in complex societies, with groups that come together, disperse, and reconvene, mirroring the social structures found in human communities. Crows, it turns out, thrive on the same type of complex thinking that humans do.

Crows: Cognitive Abilities Comparable to Primates

While crows’ brains are relatively small—about the size of a human thumb—their brain structure is more akin to that of mammals, even primates, relative to their body size. John Marzluff, a corvid cognition researcher at the University of Washington, explains that crows are highly adaptable, relying on intelligence rather than sheer reproduction to survive. “You can flood the environment with offspring or you can evolve a strategy based on being thoughtful and smart,” he says. Crows, as it turns out, have perfected the second strategy.

Crows’ remarkable problem-solving abilities have been well-documented. One famous example is Betty, a New Caledonian crow, who demonstrated the ability to bend a wire into a hook in order to extract food from a tube. This type of analytical thinking was once thought to be reserved for higher mammals but has now been observed in crows. More recently, researchers in Germany trained two crows, Glenn and Ozzy, to distinguish between faint light signals, an achievement previously associated with monkeys. These examples show that crows have a sophisticated ability to think critically about their environment.

Marzluff’s work with crows is particularly fascinating. In one experiment, he wore a caveman mask while tagging crows on the University of Washington campus. He discovered that many of the crows recognized him, even years after the tagging event. They would mob and scold him whenever he wore the mask. “They have to spread that information culturally, through social learning,” Marzluff explains. “This is a behavior that’s learned from others, much like how human children learn not to talk to strangers.”

Swift’s Crow Funeral Experiments

Swift’s research involved creating artificial crow funerals to study the birds’ reactions. She would feed peanuts to crows for several days in a specific location, and on the fourth day, a volunteer masked in disguise would present a taxidermied crow. The response from the crows was immediate—an alarm call would be issued, and soon a group of crows would gather around the deceased bird. When presented with a non-crow bird, like a song sparrow, no funeral-like behavior was observed, reinforcing the idea that the crows were reacting specifically to the death of one of their own.

Swift also observed the crows’ behavior when they encountered the masked researcher without a dead bird. The crows would aggressively dive-bomb the volunteer, recognizing the figure as a potential threat. Even after the funeral event had passed, the crows remained cautious, as if they had learned to associate that location with danger.

The Curious Case of Necrophilia Among Crows

One of the more unexpected behaviors Swift observed during her experiments involved crows engaging with the taxidermied crows in unusual ways, including one instance where a pair of crows attempted to mate with the dummy crow. Swift notes that while this behavior was rare (occurring only 4% of the time and primarily during early breeding season), it raised intriguing questions about how crows interact with the dead. However, Swift emphasized that such behavior is not typical and shouldn’t overshadow the primary goal of understanding how crows react to death.

Imaging Crow Brains: How Crows Process Death

To further investigate how crows process the death of one of their own, Swift and Marzluff teamed up to use positron emission tomography (PET) scans on crows’ brains. Their aim was to identify which parts of the brain lit up when crows encountered a dead crow. The results were striking. The area of the brain that lit up was analogous to the human prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in decision-making, emotional processing, and complex thinking.

Swift and Marzluff’s study, published in Behavioural Brain Research, provided strong evidence that crows think critically when encountering the dead. “This isn’t a simple, automatic response,” Swift explains. “They’re processing this event in a thoughtful, deliberate way.” This finding suggests that crows may learn from negative experiences, much like humans, and use this knowledge to inform their future behaviors.

Conclusion: Crows Are More Than Just Birds

Crows, it seems, are not just intelligent animals—they are creatures that experience death in ways that resemble human responses. Through their social behaviors, problem-solving skills, and even their reactions to death, crows challenge our understanding of the animal mind. As research into their behavior continues, we may gain deeper insights into the complex cognitive and emotional lives of these remarkable birds.

This research also encourages us to rethink the boundaries between humans and other species. The growing recognition of animal intelligence, including the understanding of death, offers a window into how deeply interconnected all living beings truly are. And as we continue to study the ways animals, like crows, respond to life and death, we might just learn something new about ourselves along the way.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Images, Dr Kaeli Swift