A mask is impassive. He does not smile at the bird being fed and does not frown when caught. This neutrality makes it a valuable tool for studying what crows hold from a human face.
In a 2012 study from the University of Washington, researchers wore a mask when capturing birds. For the next few weeks, the people who fed them used another. Both expressions were neutral: what changed was the experience associated with the face.
Brain imaging showed different responses depending on the mask presented, consistent with these negative or positive associations. The crows could therefore relate an appearance to what they had experienced. This result does not lend a human grudge to every bird in the garden. However, it is enough to change the look: for some crows, we are not all anonymous silhouettes.
What we know
American crow studied experimentally; do not generalize this experience to all corvids or to all encounters.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 21, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
Signaler une erreur ou apporter une précision
