Professor Blue

Here’s a clue: It all starts out with just one of them.

One who spots trou­ble from a dis­tance and mem­o­rizes faces of those peo­ple who cause him or his friends trou­ble.  He passes along the descrip­tion to his tribe so that they all quickly know that the guy with the brown, thin­ning hair and the mole near his left nos­tril and the weird scar in between his eye­brows is a threat.

Not like that other bald­ing guy who’s eat­ing ice cream on a park bench.

Once the news spreads to the oth­ers, through a spe­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion, they gather together to heckle and pester the trou­ble­maker, and defend their friend.

Who exactly are they?  Guys with iphones and an app that can map out and track peo­ple by the shapes of their faces?

No.

They’re called a mur­der of crows.  And sci­en­tists have been dis­cov­er­ing just how tough it is to out­smart them.

don’t mess with these crows

Check out these videos on the recent find­ings by scientists.

If you’re in Canada, you’ll want to check this out…

A Mur­der of Crows – CBC video with David Suzuki

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/The_Nature_of_Things/1242300217/ID=1385855962

If you’re in the US, check this out…

A Mur­der of Crows – PBS US video

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/a-murder-of-crows/full-episode/5977/

–>If you’re try­ing to look at the videos from another coun­try, please let me know which link worked or didn’t work for you and what coun­try you’re in.

Here’s an arti­cle to read more about crows.

Angry Birds: Crows never for­get a face

http://news.discovery.com/animals/angry-crows-memory-life-threatening-behavior-110628.html