Operant Conditioning in the Common Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)

CRows are characterized by their resourcefulness, adaptability to diverse habitats, and extensive behavioral repertoire (Peterson, 1963). They live in well-organized social groups and seem to possess a complex language (Lorenz, 1952; Frings and Frings, 1959; Bannerman, 1963; Chamberlain and Cornwell, 1971). Extraordinary learning capabilities are often attributed to the crow, but evidence of this is primarily anecdotal. Surprisingly few experimental studies have been conducted with crows. In the only contemporary report of this type, two crows (incorrectly identified as Corvus americanus) showed a progressive decrease in errors to criterion on multiple reversals of a visual discrimination problem (Stettner et al., 1966). While their performance seemed superior to that of pigeons studied under similar conditions, generalizations are limited by the small number of subjects and the brief duration of the experiment occasioned by the premature death of both birds.