u/Routine-Tap4171

So, I’ve been teaching this crow family sign language. They live in my backyard tree. I’ve been doing the same routine for about 10-14 days. I’ve been feeding them longer, but doing signs for about the 10-14 days. I’ve been consistent.

I show them the ítem and then sign. So for peanut, I actually use the asl sign for nut/peanut. I would do it about 3-4 times, while having my left hand out of the window to show them the peanut.

I’ve done signs for every food I give. They like when I sign, because it allows them to know I’m feeding them. At one point, I did a quiz. I did the peanut sign and didn’t show a peanut. I kept my head down so they wouldn’t feel rushed or pressured. I wanted and tried again, but they were silent. So eventually I did the sign and showed the peanut. Then for days I didn’t try again.

But at one point, I had forgotten to hold the half boiled chicken egg, when I signed egg. They reacted to the sign. They don’t always caw, but they seemed excited. I hadn’t planned that, but that was big! Then I showed the egg and signed and they didn’t really react to the other stuff.

Then the next day, today. I did the peanut sign without peanuts. They were silent, then I lowered my head and they cawed! I smiled and showed the peanut and signed. They cawed some more. Then for their 2nd meal today. I did the egg sing with the egg and they cawed. Then I did a tuna fish sign, which is similar to the sardine sign. Which I had been giving them sardines for a while. The sardine sign is a wavy line to the diagonal left. The tuna sign is wavy line up. Then I did wild blueberries and that’s similar to the egg sign. They cawed excited, then they cawed like, “Wait what?” When they saw the blueberries and the hand motion.

I think this is almost full evidence that crows can learn sign language. Because some people might have wanted to know, and there’s not much information on it. But they’re very smart. They know when to eat something to avoid getting dehydrated. They know when to save something when there’s surplus. They surprise me all the time. I love them.

So, I have been befriending crows of my neighborhood. I started feeding birds, then by day 10 I got info to feed the crows. I got their full attention by day 12. They had cawed when I fed the birds, so they knew I was feeding them. So it was pretty quick to get attention. They were basically cawing loudly. Like saying, “Mine! Mine!”

I had been throwing peanuts on the step of my house. Now, I’ve had some bad health and am recovering. Enough to have been able to try this. I can’t leave the house, and have a sound blanket covering my window and door. So the crows can’t see me. Little by little they’ve been getting closer to me.

I follow a schedule everyday. I give them peanuts, eggs, sardines, some fruit, and I will eventually give them some cooked-unseasoned Turkey ground.

So there’s the 2 parents and I thought only an older fledgling. But it seems there is a baby. The first crow that started cawing at my window. Their name is Voice of feathers. Don’t know the gender, but they are very experienced and smart. Very confident. The mate is named Signal of wing. I don’t know much about them. I heard them do a wah-uhg at me. The laugh sound. The one that means they’re happy. Then I learned of the older fledgling. I named them Caw of beak. They started cawing and I had been responding with my breath. They kept cutting me off and not knowing when to speak. lol. Still learning. I have since moved on to doing taps on a peanut butter jar to communicate. But by doing the breaths to talk with them. They have found me very intriguing.

With the jar, they are still very much interested. They tend to show up a lot to get me to pay attention to them. But today, a big thing happened. I met the baby. I didn’t even know there was a baby. I was just laying there, and I heard this tiny sound that had the edge of a crow caw. It was so weak and little. I can’t believe the baby just showed up close to my window sill. It’s only day 14 of feeding the crows. 24 days of feeding the birds. This has been so quick.

The baby Just made a few noises then went off. Lol. So cute. They got distracted by something. Didn’t even respond to my taps like the other crows. I’ve named them Posture of eye.

I just am so happy. I haven’t seen them during feeding too much. I saw voice of feathers I believe when I did morning food, but I didn’t get a good look, because I avoided looking at them. I’ve avoided looking at them for so long, that eventually voice of feathers started cawing at me for attention. Now I look out the window sometimes and they get so excited that I look in their direction. I love them so much. I think they even fly up above me now, when I feed them. I see a bird fly past me, and land above, but I don’t look or follow. So.. but they’re black, so it could be. I am very careful of not looking at them too much. But they’ve been trying to get more attention out of me.

At one point, caw of beak did a baby voice wah at me for attention. My arm just kind of flew on its own and slammed into a gallon of water I had nearby and made a racket. But caw of beak didn’t get scared. They continued doing the baby wahs. Next time they did the wahs. I wasn’t responding to the family because I needed time to rest, but then caw of beak came over and did a baby wah, and I couldn’t say no, lol. So I have been trained. Lol. And mind you, all of this is by sound. I have not seen them clearly. I’m just going based off all the conversations we’ve had. All the sounds they make and the things they do.

Anyways, if you read this, thanks for reading.