Crows are a lot smarter than that. It seems that researchers are trying to pull intelligent behavior from creatures they assume are not intelligent. That's like talking baby-talk ("goo-goo gaa-gaa") to a baby. Why not just speak English to them? They are people after all. Same with crows. Assume that they know what you expect of them and you will get results. Don't waste time, you'll just confuse them.

Crows are the epitome of coolness.

The only reason this is such a surprise to them is they obviously haven't had any contact with birds on a personal level.

Recently I learned about Seramas, a dwarf breed of chicken.

Soon after I had an opportunity to get one, a rooster who now fully grown weighs about 1 lb, about 1/10 to 1/20th of the normal sized rooster. I can hold him in one hand.

I have been quite surprised by how profoundly intelligent he is.

Prior to having him, I thought of chickens as dumb birds who make funny noises.

My firs surprise was how NOT funny their clucks and sqwaks were.

Instead of being typical bird noises, his chatter has a cadence that mimics the tenor of a situation.

Give him good food,and he sounds like a human talking about a great meal for example.

The cadence of his sounds reflect specific emotions that eerily are appropriate for the situation, like being upset I fed him late LOL

Really they didn't have to got so far to find intelligent birds. They could have gone to a farm.

If a red light blinks for several seconds, the crows have learned that the food will be unavailable until the green light blinks for several seconds.

From this the researchers conclude that the crows have deduced the hidden malevolent acts of blinking red lights.

I actually rescued a young crow, not quite fully fledged, a couple of months ago, by picking her up from an office building entrance-way and placing it under some brushes in a raised planter between the building and a townhouse. Its parents were excitedly squawking from the trees close by while I was doing this. I am sure that they continued to look after their young one because I walk all around the downtown area of Vancouver and a certain young crow is often never far from me, and will sit close by when I am on a bench on the seawall or in a park playing my guitar. I have named her Crawley. Crows can establish close relationships with people without the need to reinforce that relationship with reward.