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15 comments

[–] [Deleted] 2 points (+2|-0)

There are about 8 of them. Red Wing Black Birds are by far one of the smartest and most trusting to try with. You toss them peanuts for long enough, once a day, for like a week or two. After this you start sitting near them and holding your hand out. Now when I go on a walk I keep peanuts in my hand because there's one that will see me from across the lake and literally B-line straight into my hand when I hold it up.

Easier option: Get a shoebox and fill it, and feed them from that. It wont take them long to figure out where the nuts are and start wanting to pick their own.

Other Birds: Nuthatches and Chickadees but they're harder to earn trust with... they're definitely a shoebox type bird

I've made friends with crows in a similar way. There were many crows at a place I used to work, and there was also one magpie and one raven.
The raven and I became buddies, but he kept the others away when he was hanging out.

Every break and lunch that I took outside, I had his company. He also spent a lot of time hanging out on the ledge above my door and was often there when I stepped out for a smoke. I was trying to teach him some words, and he was beginning to make 'human noises', but then I left that job.
I really wanted to teach him to say 'Nevermore'. The idea of a wild raven flying up to random people and squawking that, amuses me.

[–] [Deleted] 1 points (+1|-0)

This took effort to find. You can befriend crows, and they never ever forget anything. If you throw a rock at one at 5, at 15 he'll still hate you on the other side of town. I wanted a pet crow my whole life. That'd be fucking hilarious if you taught it Nevermore... sadly todays humans don't know poetry that well...

Maybe they know less poetry, but thanks to the Simpsons they might recognize that one.
Crows and Ravens are some of the smartest birds. There's a ted talk about a guy training them to use a vending machine.
And also crows that learned how to use a crosswalk.