A cou­ple of inter­est­ing ornitho­log­i­cal studies:

Like ele­phants, could it be that crows never for­get a face, and learn to recog­nise threat­en­ing (and, con­versely, reward­ing) humans from both par­ents and oth­ers in their flock?

Crows and their rel­a­tives — among them ravens, mag­pies and jays — are renowned for their intel­li­gence and for their abil­ity to flour­ish in human-dominated land­scapes. That abil­ity may have to do with cross-species social skills. In the Seat­tle area, where rapid sub­ur­ban growth has attracted a thriv­ing crow pop­u­la­tion, researchers have found that the birds can rec­og­nize indi­vid­ual human faces.

More inter­est­ingly (amaz­ingly?) could crows be the first non-human ani­mal to use casual rea­son­ing to solve prob­lems, includ­ing chimps?

For more corvid intel­li­gence, see Joshua Klein’s TED Talk on the intel­li­gence of crows.