Most of us probably don’t think of crows as being warm and friendly creatures, if anything stories like “The Raven” have painted crows as ominous birds. For an 8-year-old girl from Seattle, though, crows are her friends and they share a deep bond that has resulted in the birds bringing her dozens of gifts.
When she was four, Gabi Mann started dropping scraps of her packed lunch for the birds on her way to school. In 2013, Gabi and her mother began offering the crows food on a daily basis and over time, the crows began to anticipate their daily feeding. Then something kind of amazing happened, the crows began reciprocating and leaving gifts for Gabi. The BBC reported that Gabi and her mother began leaving peanuts in the bird feeder and the crows would leave behind shiny trinkets after they were finished eating.
There wasn’t a pattern. Gifts showed up sporadically – anything shiny and small enough to fit in a crow’s mouth.One time it was a tiny piece of metal with the word “best” printed on it. “I don’t know if they still have the part that says ‘friend’,” Gabi laughs, amused by the thought of a crow wearing a matching necklace.
The gifts range from a black button and yellow bead to an earring and LEGO piece. Gabi amassed quite the collection of gifts from her crows and keeps her prized “treasures” organized in bead container, with each item individually wrapped and categorized.
“Inside the box are rows of small objects in clear plastic bags. One label reads: “Black table by feeder. 2:30 p.m. 09 Nov 2014.” Inside is a broken light bulb. Another bag contains small pieces of brown glass worn smooth by the sea. “Beer coloured glass,” as Gabi describes it.”
Gabi’s most prized gift from the crows is a small pearl colored heart, which “shows how much they love me,” says Gabi. Another time she was given a small piece of metal with the word “best” on it. “I don’t know if they still have the part that says ‘friend’,” Gabi told reporter Katy Sewall.
Having a group of friendly gift-giving crows might seem unusual, but according to John Marzluff, professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington, crows respond well to consistency and can form bonds.
“I can’t say they always will (give presents),” Marzluff admits, having never received any gifts personally, “but I have seen an awful lot of things crows have brought people.”
Gabi seems to have lucked out with some especially generous crows, and the birds once even returned an item that Gabi’s mother Lisa had thought was lost. When Lisa dropped her camera lens cap one day she thought it was gone. A few days later she and Gabi found it sitting on the edge of their bird bath. She logged onto their computer, pulled up the bird cam and found that a crow had rinsed it off first in the bird bath before leaving it on the bath’s edge.