Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Crows occupy a peculiar and precarious place in our cultural imagination. We laud their intelligence and cunning, but we also associate the birds with ill omens or the raw underbelly of nature, and we deride or condemn them for what we see as an undifferentiated, cruel mob mentality. In her poem, “Crows,” Mary Oliver writes “when you look in the eyes of one you have seen them all.” She continues,

“At the edges of highways

they pick at things.

They are anything but refined.

….

[They are] glossy and rowdy

and indistinguishable.

The deep muscle of the world.”

As much as I love Oliver’s poetry, I must protest. A crow mob is far from a mass of sameness. Research on American crows suggests they have quite distinct personalities and, as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology admits, “although much has been published about [this species], we still know relatively little about it.” In spite of all the studies, these birds remain fascinating and mysterious. Different populations of American crows exhibit very different behaviors (e.g., some parent cooperatively, others do not); this variation suggests some degree of what might be described as “cultural learning.” Additionally, crows display the same brain-weight-to-body ratio as humans, and research shows the birds demonstrate self awareness to a degree that few other non-human animals do. In one famous study, researchers discovered that crows quickly learn to associate particular masks worn by humans with either “good” or “bad” behavior (depending on the mask wearer’s actions). The birds didn’t just respond as individuals; many months after the experiment’s start, birds who had never witnessed or experienced the “bad” behavior firsthand still scolded or harassed the “bad” mask wearer. Researchers concluded that members of the flock were learning to recognize threatening humans from their parents and/or other crows.

Something else we get wrong about these compelling corvids: they’re not just “black.” To create this color column, I looked at many crows in even, neutral lighting, and found this mix of indigo, deep lavender, warm black, and grey. I elected not to capture the birds’ remarkable iridescence in the column, but that’s one more reason to counter Oliver – these birds are anything but unrefined!

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.