Crows

Most fascinating creatures.
Just this morning I watched one trying to swallow a stick shaped thing.
It looked rather funny.
The animal alternatively tried lifting it’s head to gulp it down and bowing it’s head to grab the food with it’s claw.
Unfortunately it seemed to be a size where neither worked.
Bad thing if you can’t bite off something.
One would need teeth for that.
Which crows obviously don’t have.
Poor things.
Beside the lack of gnawing tools they manage well to live in those busy cities of ours.
They find their food on the street or in the trashcans.
They made it into the civilization and are a common sight.
Just like a lot of other animals like foxes, boars, seagulls and so forth.
Speaking of seagulls.
Like crows they tend to live in swarms.
Every now and then you have masses of either around you.
Reminding you of one of the oldest Horror movies.
Alfred Hitchcock’s „The birds“ from 1963.
It’s a classic.
A movie that in it’s time and still now scares a lot of people.
Using one of the utmost fears of humankind.
The fear of animals, birds in this case, who gather in groups, swarms, and then randomly attack and kill (innocent?) people.
There was no CGI to display this.
There were only birds and people.
Though, you could obviously see that they used puppets – even more so in the awful color version.
Yet I think it’s one of the most interesting and well remembered movies – at least the „fear“ for bird swarms.
If you haven’t seen it yet.
Just give it a try.
And please: The black and white version!
It just has a way better atmosphere…(and isn’t as ridiculous as the other.)
But back to the crows.
They are used in a lot of Horror movies as they symbolize death or are even a sign for it.
Either as scavenger who will devour the dead or as a bad omen that someone will die in the near future – so this is even worse with owls, but that’s another topic.
No surprise there was a whole movie/comic series called „The Crow“ where they are used as guides from the underworld or something like that.
To my regret I have to admit that I haven’t had the chance to see any of the movies yet. I only heard or read about them and the accident involving Brandon Lee.
Doesn’t it make it an even more authentic Horror movie if the main actor dies during the shooting? 😉
Just kidding.
Aside from movies crows also have a huge folkloric background.
There are for example the Karasu-Tengu from the Japanese myths, who have somewhat humanoid bodies or can even change between animal and human form (differing from source).
And of course Hugin and Munin the Nordic god Odin’s…wait…ravens!
See? I just made a common mistake.
Mixing up those two species.
Though they belong to the same family the terms that are used describe different being.
Crows are the small „Corvidae“ – as the family is called – while the ravens are significantly larger, who also are even more clever then them.
During my childhood there was a common raven (which  is an awful translation for their German name „Kolkrabe“ or the Latin „Corvus Corax“ – which by the way is a pretty interesting German medieval band) in a near zoo, who was able to say it’s own name.
Much like a parrot would do.
Fascinating right?
Why not explore it some more?
Have fun with that. 😉
PoiSonPaiNter

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