Wild crows have long fascinated people with their intelligence, playful behavior, and mysterious interactions with humans. Among the more curious behaviors: there are confirmed reports of crows leaving small objects—trinkets, lost jewelry, or other bits—for humans who feed them regularly. While scientists caution that interpreting these actions as deliberate “gifts” involves anthropomorphism, the evidence is strong enough to suggest this is a real, repeatable behavior.

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What We Know for Sure

• Documented “gifting” behavior: In one well-reported case, a man in suburban Seattle had been regularly feeding a family of American crows for over four years. One morning he found a soda can tab threaded onto a pine twig placed perfectly outside his back door—right where he usually left food. The next day another identical twig was found. The man concluded that the crows had deliberately created and left the items.

• Other similar reports: Over time, people who routinely feed crows have reported finding other small, sometimes shiny objects—keys, lost earrings, bones, stones—left in food-delivery spots. These have occurred in multiple places, not just one isolated location.

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What Experts Say & What We Don’t Yet Know

Intelligence, Recognition, and Reciprocity

• Crows are part of the corvid family, a group known for high cognitive ability. They recognize individual humans, remember who feeds them, and can learn from those interactions. Cases of “gifting” are considered by many scientists to be an example of how crows might reciprocate or interact socially, especially when a human reliably provides food.

• Experts emphasize, however, that intention is hard to prove. We can't know for sure if a crow leaves something out of “gratitude” the way humans understand it. Many “gifts” could come from curiosity, accidental dropping, play, or simply the bird discarding an item it no longer cares for.

Frequency & Conditions

• Such behavior appears more likely among crows that are familiar with a human who feeds them regularly. Repeated feeding tends to create recognition.

• The items left are usually small and easy to pick up—things like soda tabs, small twigs, lost jewelry, or other household droppings.

• These objects tend to appear in the same spot where the human regularly puts out food. This suggests some learning or conditioning: the crow may associate that location and human behavior with reward, then “returns” something.

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Why This Matters

• Understanding animal cognition: These cases reinforce how intelligent corvids are—not just in tool use or memory, but in how they interact socially and perhaps form relationships (in their own terms) with people.

• Ethology and how animals perceive humans: If crows recognize specific people and adjust behavior toward them (e.g. leaving objects near a feeder), it shows they track consistency and human presence in ways more complex than previously thought.

• Caution against assumptions: It also reminds us scientists must remain careful. Just because an object is “left” doesn’t immediately mean gratitude or intentional communication in human terms.

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Remaining Questions

• Do crows choose objects specifically to give, or are the items incidental?

• How do crows decide which item to leave and where?

• Does “gift-leaving” increase as bonding/interaction between crow and human strengthens?

• What proportion of feeders receive such “gifts”—is it rare, common, or somewhere in between?

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Bottom Line

Yes, there is reliable evidence that some wild crows have left small objects for humans who feed them, especially when those humans are consistent. The behavior appears to reflect more than pure coincidence, though calling it “gift-giving” in human terms is speculative. It’s one more fascinating way in which these birds demonstrate cognition, learning, and possibly rudimentary social reciprocity with people.