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If you’ve ever seen a group of crows gather around a fallen comrade and wondered why they’re there, you’re not alone. This phenomenon, often called a “crow funeral” is one of the most intriguing behaviours observed in corvids, the bird family that includes crows, ravens, magpies, and jays. Far from being random or purely emotional, scientists believe this behaviour serves important survival and learning functions rooted in the species’ intelligence and social structure. According to Science Direct, wild American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) mob and respond strongly to dead members of their own species but not to dead unrelated birds, indicating they use the presence of a dead crow as a cue for danger. Crows also learn and remember associated risks and can adjust future behaviour toward people or places linked to such events.
What happens during a crow funeral?
When a crow finds the body of another crow, usually it “gives a series of alarm calls or scolds.” The alarm call is an indication of danger, and it readily assembles other crows from the surrounding area. The assembly lasts for approximately 15 to 20 minutes or even longer, where the birds call loudly and peer at their environment. The birds will usually disperse after this assembling activity. Such an assembling habit has often been recorded among both urban and wild crow populations.This is in stark contrast to how other species of birds behave when other Crows perish; for example, Crows will not behave in this way when pigeons are dead or when other Crows of a different species are dead.
Is it mourning or something else?
Credit: Canva
It’s almost a temptation to remark that this is a form of mourning, but scientists warn against the mistake of comparing crow funerals with mourning. Crows are highly intelligent birds that have intricate social structures, so their response to a deceased crow might have a lot to do with information processing. The study of this phenomenon is known as corvid thanatology.In fact, some researchers have gone as far as conducting brain imaging observations of the reaction of crows to the stimuli. The results indicate that the presence of a dead crow stimulates the decision-making and memory regions of the crow’s brain upon viewing the carcass, thereby showing that the crows do not react automatically.
Learning about danger, a key function
Credit: Canva
One of the most robust scientific explanations for crow funerals comes from research conducted by ornithologist Kaeli Swift and colleagues at the University of Washington, according to PubMed. Their work shows that crows use these gatherings as opportunities for social learning and danger assessment. Wild American crows rarely physically touch dead conspecifics but more often give alarm calls and recruit other crows, suggesting death-related encounters are driven more by danger response than by feeding or social motives.Crows also exhibited long-term behavioural shifts following said meetings, being more wary when foraging near locations of death, and some even learned to recognise particular individuals wearing particular masks as a threat, acting aggressively toward said people in subsequent meetings.
Warning, learning, and social bonds
Scientists believe this behaviour confers evolutionary advantages. By gathering and vocalising at the site of a death, crows can alert others to potential threats, share information about location-based hazards, and teach younger or less experienced individuals to recognise and avoid danger. This may contribute to higher survival rates within their social groups.
Why it matters
Corvid burial rituals offer a fascinating illustration of the complexity and usefulness of animal behaviour. Rather than representing a simple ancillary function for human grief rituals, these events seem to be firmly based in information gathering, threat assessment, and social learning. These and other behaviours serve as a useful reminder that intelligence and social complexity are by no means human sole properties, and that even birds possess highly developed responses to their environment.
