What we found interesting was that the parents of the baby birds who were removed, banded etc accepted the baby birds afterwards. Our understanding is that parent birds will reject those that have been handled by humans.

I recently read The Genius of Birds and realized I hadn't thought of birds as individuals - I really thought everything was driven by instinct and that one bird was pretty much a substitute for another. This research reinforces that. I also didn't realize that Crows live that long, or that their feathers turn white as they age.

I am glad to learn that crows can live beyond a few years.  I helped raise a baby crow when I was young, and when she left and flew away with other crows, I always wondered what happened to her and how long she may have lived.  her name was "Ima" and I taught her to say, "Ima crow!"

I didn't know that their nests are at the very top of a tree.

The longevity of crows is much greater than I ever imagined!

I wouldn’t have imagined that so much emphasis is placed on identifying and following individual crows from egg to death. The multiple and redundant “names” and forms of identification were also surprising and interesting. Finally, I was also surprised to learn that newly hatched crows are naked and have blue eyes until maturity!

I was most surprised to learn that blood sampling is the method for determining gender.  I was also surprised to learn that the bands often do not last the lifetime of the birds.

It's amazing that you're able to follow so many individual crows! I'm looking forward to learning about their family life and how they socialize with other crows.

It was interesting how thorough they are, and how they had the ability to track whole families. I am curious as to if the wing tags and radio antennas impact the crows' behavior.

I was surprised that they live so long, although parrots also have great longevity, and they are also a remarkably intelligent group.  I wonder if there is a correlation.

I am not sure I found anything surprising about their methods. Wait, I take that back - I thought it was surprising that the research teams have already gone through all of the possible letter / number combinations TWICE. What was interesting to me was learning how to identify crows' nests and that baby crows have blue eyes.

i was surprised to learn that you would actually take the babes out of the nest to the ground to study them.  What are the parent crows doing while you take their babies away?

I was surprised that the baby crows were taken out of the nest and then returned with no adverse effects to the family.

That they use 3 different bands/tags to ID them!

I had heard previously about some of how crows are researched but I did not know that they sex them via blood samples.

I'm surprised that the big plastic tags don't get in the crows' way. And the radio trackers, those seem cumbersome. I'm surprised that the processing that the researchers do doesn't disrupt the family life of the crow.

Going up into the nests to capture the baby crows to take blood and band them.  I hope they are gentle with them :)

in the hand

That they take the babies so young to mark and study.  Also that the markings stay on for such a long time. That crows live to be 19 years old

Getting up to those tall nests!  AND blue-eyed young.  I learned that in ornithology, but had forgotten.

I knew most of it as I have been corvid crazy since the cradle and have followed Dr. MacGowan's work for a very long time.  I guess the fact that the team could so closely follow individuals and identify their relationship with other other birds within the different flocks/families.

That they can climb up into those high trees to tag babies in the nests and that it doesn't disturb the mother's interest in her nest. Also the multiple banding method and that sexing the crows comes by taking blood.

I didn't know that sex was determined by taking blood and DNA testing. If crows live up to 19 years in the wild, how long would they live if they are in captivity/in a park/non-releasable facility?

The way they identify them with three different ids.

The multiple banding  method and the ability to track crows for 18 years. I did not know they lived this long. This is the kind of meticulous work that reminds me of Jane Goodall tracking primates. Fascinating to know there are such personalities in crows. Admirable work. Great to finally understand why they hang out in cemeteries.