Talking Crow: Canada Woman Shocked After Wild Bird in Small Town Speaks to Her in English

Talking crows may seem to be out of the ordinary as these wild birds are mostly known as scavengers of rotting carcasses and even garbage. Being omnivores, crows eat almost whatever is available, including insects, cultivated fruits, fish, eggs, nestling birds, nuts, spiders, snakes, snails, and vegetables, according to experts. However, a reported incident that occurred earlier this year suggests that these birds can also talk after a crow spoke to a Canada woman in the English language.

For years, experts have contested if whether wild crows can talk or not. Although some reports indicate that the winged scavengers can be taught to talk, it is not as sophisticated as parrots or even with the same level of human speech. Regardless, talking birds is a fascinating fact, confirming that animals other than humans are also capable of speech, at least on the most basic level. In the past several decades, several people also sought to have talking birds as their pets.

Talking Crow Incident

The talking crow incident occurred a few months back when a local resident in a Canadian town experienced in what can be called as a bizarre event. According to a report in recent days, the woman, named Lisa Sandoval, was near a waterfront in North Rustico, located in the northern shore of Prince Edward Island, when she heard someone calling her, "Hello! Hello!

At first, Sandoval looked at her surroundings and noticed that there was no person around at that time. When she checked again, only a crow was near, placing her in a state of disbelief at first, according to the report. Sandoval later found out that she was not the only one in North Rustico to have encountered the talking crow.

Unconfirmed testimonies in previous years indicate that the wild bird was initially found as an injured baby by a local elderly man and took care of him, as well as talked to him. The man eventually released the crow after it recovered.

Can Crows Talk?

Despite arguments surrounding the topic of talking crows, scientists assert that birds can learn and copy limited sounds, noises, and even human speech such as "hello."

In 2020, a study published in the journal iScience showed that crows have categorical auditory working memory with the following discoveries outlined below:

• Crows classified new sounds
• Crows categorize different sounds
• Crows can memorize these sound categories

Although it has been known that crows and other birds are unable to create unique speech, the study shows that crows can talk under the condition that they are trained in a delayed match-to-category task, requiring them to memorize sounds based on upward or downward sound frequency modulation.

In a related incident like the one experienced by the Canada woman, talking crows were also reported in a town in England in recent years. These birds were spotted in Knaresborough where two tourists spotted some crows chatting.