Can Crows and Ravens Talk? [Video of talking Crow]

Have you watched that video of a crow being trained how to talk? Well, it is a short one, but long enough to spur my curiosity. Below is research I did to find out how good they can talk.

Can crows and ravens Talk?

Crows and ravens can talk just like parrots, crows and ravens use their syrinx to mimic sounds they hear. The American crow can count to three or four. In the wild crows and ravens have learned how to mimic the sound of other animals. However, crows and ravens cannot talk better than parrots. As opposed to a popular belief, you do not have to split a crow’s tongue for them to talk.

There are several parrots and other birds such as Myanmar birds that can talk as well as we humans do. The intelligence of the African Grey parrot has actually been equated to that of a five-year-old kid.

In a different room, you would think it’s another human being talking when an African or Amazon parrot talks.

Can crows and ravens Talk?

Watch This video of a crow asking ‘Are you alright?’

How do Crows and ravens Talk Like Parrots?

All talking birds are able to talk by modifying the airflow through the syrinx which makes it possible for them to make sounds. Syrinx is normally located at the point where the trachea of the bird splits before it gets into the lungs.

By modifying how the air flows through this organ birds are able to mimic whatever they hear. It can either be words from or sounds from other animals and objects such as cars.

Do crows talk to humans?

Despite the fact that crows can talk, they cannot have a fluent conversation with humans. Simply put, crows can not talk to humans. But they can mimic humans’ voices and words.

Even captive crows that have been taught how to talk cannot hold a conversation with humans. You see when crows are being taught how to talk they are restricted to certain words and based on the videos available they pick some words and leave others.

The number of words they can pronounce is a bit limited compared to parrots such as the African Parrots that can pick words even from strangers outside or from a Tv set.

Research has shown that crows can even discriminate against people based on their language. Based on this research, wild large-billed crows were captured from the streets of Japan and put into aviaries in the university of Keio.

Fluent Japanese speakers were assigned to take care of them, researchers had theorized that given that these crows had been accustomed to the Japanese language they would respond to the Japanese language once played in a speaker.

But to their surprise, the crows responded to a new language that they had not heard before such as the Dutch language.

The researchers concluded that these crows must have identified the Japanese language and the dutch language with foreigners who are more likely to be tourists and are more likely to give them treats.

This research indicates that crows can discriminate on the basis of language.

Do crows understand human language? The fact that these large-billed crows could tell difference between the Japanese language from dutch shows clearly that crows can actually understand human language.

Another study has also revealed that crows are more likely to respond to ‘hey’ from a stranger as opposed to ‘hey’ from a caretaker.

Researchers have theorized this behavior to mean that a caretaker is less likely to harm them compared to a stranger. That way they would rather keep watch and attention to the stranger than the friendly voice.

This is another instance where crows were found to discriminate against people based on their voices.

Can all crows and ravens talk?

Unfortunately, not all crows can talk, only captive crows and ravens that have been trained to talk can actually talk. Wild crows and ravens cannot talk, even captive crows that have not been trained how to talk cannot talk.

Can Crows talk better than parrots?

Some captive crows can learn to talk better than some parrots after being trained. While parrots are some of the best-talking birds, not all have the ability to talk even after training.

However, trained African greys can talk much better than any trained captive crow.

How many words can Crows speak?

Generally, crows cannot speak a lot of words, most words they can speak are either three or four words. Research shows that the American crow can count to either three or four.

Can crows talk if you split their tongue?

It is a common myth that if you split the tongue of a crow that they will talk. This is just a myth, crows will talk just fine after being trained even without splitting their tongue.

Splitting a crow’s tongue can interfere with how they communicate with other crows or even eat. Therefore, this act is cruel and should be avoided.

All the videos of talking crows online do not have the crow’s tongue split.

How do you teach a crow or raven how to talk?

The best moment to teach a crow how to talk is when you and the crow are bonding or enjoying each other’s company. Always start with small and simple words like hey, hello, and so on.

After every successful attempt by the crow to repeat any word you say to them make sure to reward them. Another important point to note is that you should never force a crow to speak past its limit.

If you realize that the crow is not in the ‘mood’ you should just stop teaching otherwise the crow might associate that exercise with a bad thing and never get to talk again.

Remember crows have the ability to remember an act of kindness and cruelty.

Summary

If you are not a bird trainer or cannot afford the bird training expenses it would be better not to buy a crow as a talking bird. Crows need extensive training so that they can talk. So parrots are much easier to train to talk and you can easily find talking parrots in the market as compared to crows. You just can’t find a talking crow in the market. Additionally, owning a crow as a pet is not legal in some states.