Everything you think you know about Corvus brachyrhynchos, the American crow, is wrong.

Anyone who knows anything about crows and uses the term "bird brain" is one, and should crave enlightenment from any bird, and work up a very long ladder to crow smarts.

Crows are easily tamed, but that doesn't mean this magnificent bird should be kept in a cage.
The corvid will surely stay as long as you hold up your end of the relationship, but "capture" violates the basic tenet, trust.

Ducks Unlimited is a most wonderful organization, too often disparaged by contrarians as "save the ducks so we can kill them". A very real fact is most DU members and supporters don't shoot ducks.

A majority of people still do good for goods sake. DU has worked to restore damp and wet lands , preferred, required, by ducks and geese, over much of the midwest and prairie, with stunning results.

State government is involved. In the early 60's, there were very few deer in Indiana, almost no ducks, no Canada geese, no wild turkeys, no coyotes.

All are back, and the complaints are many.

Unless you need your amusement manufactured, wouldn't it be better to enjoy Canada geese than complain because they shit on your golf course? As you have witnessed here, you can see deer, ducks, wild turkeys and coyotes, red tail hawks, American Kestrels, from the engineered comfort of your personal transportation module. All were gone 40 years ago. Now, lucky you!

Crows are adept at facial recognition, so don't expect to parade your "training" skills: your Corvid friend will most likely ignore another human.

What crows aren't experts at is dodging lead. They have been hated and hunted and destroyed since white people, who respect only the multi-parsed Word, arrived to denude the continent. Use everything. All. Use it all up. God says.

American Indians recognized the crow as an important mover in the world, along with coyotes, owls, eagles and horses. And others.

In Mexico, where native Indians are treated with respect, the crow is acknowledged as a deity, a god of creation thousands of years old, older than yours, unless you acknowledge the earth as your father and your mother. If, instead, you are looking at some cosmic, superuniverse, god of all known and unknown, you are, in the gospel of Neil Young, " just pissin' in the wind, you don't know it, but you are" and need to look closer to home for what matters. Like, maybe, in your home.

As with everything else in this country, greed reduced hundreds of millions of ducks to thousands, and less. Rennovation eforts began, ironically, with the US Government, and the Federal Duck Stamp program (buy one now, and know your money is well spent), which raised the kind of money not just to put ducks in the air, but to grow ducks on the ground. A wonderful Federal Program.

Enter the crow. All protected birds are "migratory" birds. These are the beloved warblers, my raptors, and mourning doves, robins, jays, and ducks, geese, crows. The crow is classed a migratory bird, with seasonal protections, at the demand of the Mexican Government, who refused to protect ducks unless the US protected crows.

And we're the religious ones. Those damn tablets mean nothing to those who display them. "Keep Holy the Lord's Day"? How you do that shopping, mowing the grass, drinking beer & watching NASCAR, NFL?

"Do Not Bear False Witness"? April 15th would be a really good Federal haul, and those who need it most would benefit largely.

"No Graven Images"? So why am I reading The Big X at a stoplight?

"Sanctity of Marriage"? Remove a kidney from the bride & groom, and divorce forfeits both to a national pool.

So today I saw a large flock, a murder, of crows in the back lot of a farmhouse being renovated or abandoned. Big bunch. Maybe 35, or 40 or more. The beans hadn't been cut, so the attraction wasn't obvious, just a bunch of MENSA birds out looking for fun.