A woman from Virginia who has formed an unlikely relationship with a family of crows by feeding them food has shared videos of them showing their gratitude to her by giving her all sorts of miniature gifts.
“Crows give gifts to each other, they also cache things they find interesting,” Tango Steinke told The Epoch Times. “As much as I’d like to believe that I’m in some way ’special' to these crows because they leave gifts, it’s more likely that they’re just trying to barter with a food source.”
It all began when Tango moved to the Alexandria area in the early summer of 2019. She realized that there were a large number of crows in her neighborhood. Being someone who has always had bird feeders wherever she lived and has heavily fed birds during the winter as food sources are scarcely available—this time was no different.
She set out a couple of railing feeders as she noticed the crows around and began to throw peanuts on the ground from her balcony that was two stories up. This way, they were able to collect the food without coming close to her and feeling threatened.
However, Tango says that it wasn’t a regular routine and was more like a hit and miss until January 2020. Then, two crows, whom she dubbed Doc and Dottie, began visiting her more regularly. Every morning, they sat by the trees to announce their arrival for breakfast.
Soon, the birds began to trust Tango and wanted to express their appreciation for her. They gave her a first gift at the end of January: a small grey pebble.
“When the pandemic started ramping up in March, and I was home with my kids; we built the feeding platform and they looked forward to feeding each morning and watching for the crows,” Tango shared. “All of the changes happened very slowly, but it went from the crows being completely untrusting of me to they would sit in the trees and preen themselves or just generally kind of hang out near us.”
Tango then noticed that Doc and Dottie began to leave her with gifts every month thereafter. The gifts she received were pebbles, a button, a piece of pottery, a couple of metal bits, a marble, acorns, coins, and small magnets.
“I’ve found all of the gifts in the feeders, prior to building the platform,” Tango said. “After that, it’s all been left on the feeding platform.”
Receiving these gifts, said Tango, still leaves her in shock and disbelief.
“Even if the crows view my ‘gifts’ as ’payments,' it’s still always an incredible rush to realize that it’s done purposely and I do treasure these gifts,” she shared.
“When the crows left the dime and the euro cent, that video went viral,” Tango shared. “I remember the first three days I just kind of sat with my mouth open watching, dumbfounded as my phone crashed trying to refresh. It was wild, and something I never expected or anticipated.”
For Tango, taking videos of Doc and Dottie and sharing them with the world has been really fun. She added that it’s also a great opportunity for her to remove the stigma that crows are bad luck or an omen of death.
“They are intelligent, social creatures with a family structure much like ours,” she said. “They have personalities and food preferences and little quirks that make them different, just like us.”
Apart from leaving her with miniature gifts, Doc and Dottie have gone beyond and become more like friends of Tango.
Last spring, during the breeding season when they went missing, Tango shared she fretted as if they were her own kids.
“I went walking around our area trying to locate them, I knew they were around because I still occasionally heard them in the distance,” she said. “I just happened to be out on my balcony when I saw them down on the fence line, but it took me a moment to process that there was a baby.”
Seeing their new addition, whom Tango has dubbed Dot-tok, she was both excited and proud of herself as she believes she had ensured that they didn’t starve in an effort to feed their baby.
Tango also noticed that there were two other crows who visited mostly during the breeding season. She named them Dash and Crow #5.
“Crows live close to their extended families and, during breeding season, the older children will come back and help raise the next generation of crows,” she said.
However, it’s not just Tango who cares about these crows. When the mother got busy as schools opened up, the crows started following her and the kids to the bus stop in the mornings and cawing up the place, indicating their presence.
“I eventually had to tell some of the other parents that they were actually just waiting for their breakfast because we feed them,” she said. “The easy alternative to explaining that I had formed a friendship with these crows over the course of two years (at the time) and they were basically just following me around most of the day because they had accepted me as one of their own and now we move as a group.”
Observing crows so closely, Tango said she has realized that they are just incredibly intelligent birds that possess an intellect and problem-solving skills of a 7-year-old child. Additionally, they tend to remember the faces of both people who have been kind and unkind to them.
“They do hold generation grudges if you offend them,” she said. “I’ve tried very hard to ensure that I don’t overstep their boundaries.”
For those interested in befriending crows, Tango suggests putting out bird feeders and trying to feed the local bird population. She'd also like to remind people that crows are wild species, so avoid taming them.
