Do Your Backyard Birds Recognize Your Face? on Tuesday, August 26, 2008

University of Washington biologist Dr. John M. Marzluff has shown through several research studies that American Crows can recognize and remember individual human faces. Maybe that ability is one of the reasons that crows, ravens and jays all seem to be able to adapt to the human environment so well!

by Molly Evans

I’ve often wondered why it is so much more exciting to our resident Steller’s Jays when my husband walks near the peanut feeder than when I do.  Scott’s presence near the peanut feeder can stir up a chatter fest of jays calling back and forth to each other!  Maybe those birds, cousins of the American Crow, recognize Scott’s face and know that he’s the one who typically fills their favorite feeder!

For 20 years John M. Marzluff, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington, has studied crows and ravens.  Over those 20 years he often wondered if some of the birds in his studies could identify the researchers who trapped and banded them as part of the research:  previously trapped birds seemed more wary of particular scientists and were sometimes harder to catch.  Dr. Marzluff decided to test his suspicions directly, and his research showed that they indeed do recognize faces! 

Though Dr. Marzluff’s is the first formal study of human face recognition in wild birds, the findings confirm the suspicions of many other researchers who have observed similar abilities in crows, ravens, gulls and other species. 

Click on the following link to read Michelle Nijhuis’s Aug. 25th New York Times Science article entitled Friend or Foe? Crows Never Forget a Face, It Seems , describing Marzluff’s study of the American Crow’s ability to recognize, and remember, individual human faces.  There’s also a short video demonstrating a group of crows reacting first, to a “stranger” walking by, and then, to a face associated with trapping and banding. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html