HOW TO HUNT AMERICA’S SMARTEST GAME BIRD
If you asked a gathering of dedicated shotgun hunters what game bird they thought was the smartest and most challenging of them all, I’m pretty sure convincing geese into decoys over field sets and water would be near the top of the list. Second choice might be trying to bring in the fickle and always wary pintail ducks to floating decoys. A third that ranks high is trying to call down desert chukars off the cliff tops for a waterhole ambush. But, if I were in this gathering of smoothbore hunters, my first choice would go to none of the above. I say the American crow, is smarter than all of the rest.
Yes, I said crows, and for good reason. These birds have an innate intelligence unmatched by any other bird — game or otherwise. Crows have been verified, in field studies, to actually be able to count the number of hunters going to blinds and leaving them, up to half-dozen or so. If you’ve ever watched a crow soar up high to drop a filbert on the concrete below to crack open the nut, you’ve witnessed some of their amazing smarts. Crows often use lookouts posted atop telephone poles or tall trees, so that their cohorts below can feed
