Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. An alternative conception of creativness is that it is simply the act of making something new. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought, sometimes referred to as divergent thought, are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness.

Creativity has been attributed variously to divine intervention, cognitive processes, the social environment, personality traits, chance, accident and serendipity. It has been associated with genius, mental illness and humour. Some say it is a trait we are born with. Others say it can be taught with the application of simple techniques.

Although intuitively a simple phenomenon, it is in fact quite complex. It has been studied from the perspectives of behavioural psychology, social psychology, psychometrics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, history, economics, design research, business, and management, among others. The studies have covered everyday creativity, exceptional creativity and even artificial creativity. Unlike many phenomena in science, there is no single, authoritative perspective or definition of creativity. And unlike many phenomena in psychology, there is no standardized measurement technique.

Although popularly associated with art and literature, it is also an essential part of innovation and invention and is important in professions such as business, economics, architecture, industrial design, science and engineering. Despite, or perhaps because of, the ambiguity and multi-dimensional nature of creativity, entire industries have been spawned from the pursuit of creative ideas and the development of creativity techniques.

Some researchers believe that creativity is the outcome of the same cognitive processes as intelligence, and is only judged as creativity in terms of its consequences, such as when the outcome of cognitive processes happens to produce something novel, a view which Perkins has termed the “nothing special” hypothesis.

A very popular model proposed by Ellis Paul Torrance holds that a high degree of intelligence appears to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for high creativity. This means that, in a general sample, there will be a positive correlation between creativity and intelligence, but this correlation will not be found if only a sample of the most highly intelligent people are assessed. Research into the threshold hypothesis, however, has produced mixed results ranging from enthusiastic support to refutation and rejection.

Some students of creativity have emphasized an element of chance in the creative process. Linus Pauling, asked at a public lecture how one creates scientific theories, replied that one must endeavor to come up with many ideas, then discard the useless ones.

Another adequate definition of creativity is that it is an assumptions-breaking process. Creative ideas are often generated when one discards preconceived assumptions and attempts a new approach or method that might seem to others unthinkable.

Creativity has been associated with right or forehead brain activity or even specifically with lateral thinking. According to some researchers, positive emotions increase the number of cognitive elements available for association and the number of elements that are relevant to the problem.

In 2005, Alice Flaherty presented a three factor model of the creative drive. Drawing from evidence in brain imaging, drug studies and lesion analysis, she described the creative drive as resulting from an interaction of the frontal lobes, the temporal lobes, and dopamine from the limbic system. The frontal lobes can be seen as responsible for idea generation, and the temporal lobes for idea editing and evaluation. Abnormalities in the frontal lobe, such as depression or anxiety, generally decrease creativity, while abnormalities in the temporal lobe often increase creativity. High activity in the temporal lobe typically inhibits activity in the frontal lobe, and vice versa. High dopamine levels increase general arousal and goal directed behaviors and reduce latent inhibition, and all three effects increase the drive to generate ideas.

Particularly strong links have been identified between creativity and mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder and depressive disorder. In Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Redfield Jamison summarizes studies of mood disorder rates in writers, poets and artists. She also explores research that identifies mood disorders in such famous writers and artists as Ernest Hemingway (who shot himself after electroconvulsive treatment), Virginia Woolf (who drowned herself when she felt a depressive episode coming on), composer Robert Schumann (who died in a mental institution), and even the famed visual artist Michelangelo.

A thoughtform is a manifestation of mental energy, also known as a Tulpa in Tibetan mysticism. Thoughtform may be understood as a psychospiritual complex of mind, energy or consciousness manifested either consciously or unconsciously, by a sentient being or in concert. 

Thoughtforms may be benevolent, malevolent or of complex alignment and may be understood as a spontaneous or intentional manifestation or emergence. Professor H. H. Price, an Oxford philosopher and parapsychologist, held that once an idea has been formed, it is no longer wholly under the control of the consciousness which gave it birth, but may operate independently on the minds of other people or on physical objects.

Areas of intense thoughtform phenomena are called window areas. Many of them were places of former religious importance that have now waned or fallen from use. The use of an area over hundreds of years creates a type of artificial life form or something that fed on the worship. When the worship is taken away it still needs to feed. 

In Tibetan mysticism, a Tulpa is a being or object which is created through willpower, visualisation, attention and focus, concerted intentionality and ritual. In other words, it is a materialized thought that has taken physical form. In the Dzogchen view, accomplished thoughtforms are sentient beings as they have a consciousness field or mindstream confluence in a dynamic organization of emergent factors from the mindstream intentionality of progenitors. 

In Tibet, where such things are practiced, a ghost of this kind is called a Tulpa. A Tulpa is usually produced by a skilled magician or yogi, although in some cases it is said to arise from the collective imagination of superstitious villagers, say, or of travelers passing through some sinister tract of country.

Mantras, the Sanskrit syllables inscribed on yantras, are essentially thought forms representing divinities or cosmic powers, which exert their influence by means of sound vibrations. 

There are apparitions that make public appearances. Some of these are said to be the perceptible double, the etheric counterpart, of a living person who is undergoing an out of body experience. Even more mysterious are the externalized perceptible manifestations of something whose existence originated in the mind of its creator by virtue of that person’s incredible powers of concentration, visualization, and other efforts of the mind. 

Another idea is that Tulpas are a massive, collective, subconscious, thoughtform. The thoughtform is said to be a three dimensional image created by the power of the mind. Buddhist llamas in Tibet are said to be able to summon up Tulpas during intense meditation. Western explorer Dame Alexandra was said to have created a Tulpa of a monk whilst studying in Tibet. Polish medium Franek Klusk was said to have summoned up cats, birds, and apes during seances. Perhaps, considering the types of beast he called up, he was creating Tulpas. If individuals can create Tulpas imagine what the collective, gestalt mind of humanity as a species could do. Perhaps dragons are a giant worldwide thought form emanating from our innermost fears.

Thoughtforms, in the sense of being systems of awareness with the attribute of self will and self determination, figure in various cognitive and psychological theories. Marvin Minsky, cofounder of the artificial intelligence laboratory at MIT, proposes that there are agencies of the mind, by which he means any and all psychological processes. Although he grants that a view of the mind as made up of many selves may be valid, he suggests that this may be a myth that we construct.

Carl Jung’s technique of active imagination involves interacting with thoughtforms of the subconscious mind. Jung identified certain universal thoughtform archetypes such as anima and animus which are characteristic of all humans. Psychological archetypes are thoughtforms. The chief difference between these scientific formulations and spiritual definitions of thoughtforms is that the former are created unconsciously whereas the latter are created deliberately.

The Bay Laurel, also known as Sweet Bay, Grecian Laurel or Bay Tree, is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub native to the Mediterranean region.

Bay Laurel is the source of the bay leaves which are used in cooking. It was also the source of the laurel wreath of ancient Greece, and therefore the expression of resting on one’s laurels. A wreath of bay laurels was given as the prize at the Pythian Games because the games were in honor of Apollo and the laurel was one of his symbols ever since his unsuccessful pursuit of the nymph Daphne, who changed into a laurel to escape his lustful stalking. 

In the Bible, the sweet bay is often an emblem of prosperity and fame. In Christianity it is said to symbolize the Resurrection of Christ and the triumph of Humanity. It is also the source of the word baccalaureate and of poet laureate. Some evidence from the medical literature supports Bay Laurel having these uses as an antioxidative, analgesic and anti-inflammatory and anticonvulsant.

In Chinese folklore there is a great laurel tree on the moon, and the Chinese name for the laurel literally translates to moon laurel. This is the subject of a story of Wu Gang, a man who aspired to immortality and neglected his work. When the deities discovered this they sentenced Wu Gang to fell the laurel tree, whereupon he could join the ranks of the deities. However, since the laurel regenerated immediately when cut, it could never be felled. The phrase “Wu Gang felling the tree” is sometimes used to refer to endless toil, analogous to Sisyphus in Greek mythology.

It is also widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in regions with mediterranean or oceanic climates, and as an indoor plant in colder regions. Bay leaves are eaten by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera, for example the Eastern tiger swallowtail.

In the fruit there are essential oils and fatty oils present. The fruit is pressed and water extracted to obtain these products. The fruit contains the essential oils terpene, sesquiterpene, alcohos and ketone. The leaves contain eucalyptol and similar terpenes.

Bay laurel leaves are used in the design of the 10 yen coin in Japan. The National Emblem of Greece consists of a blue escutcheon with a white cross totally surrounded by two laurel branches.

Neodruidism is a form of modern spirituality or religion that promotes harmony and worship of nature, along with respect for all beings and the environment. It is considered to be a Neopagan faith by some adherents, along with such religions as Wicca and Neopaganism. By other modern druids it is considered to be a philosophical movement that includes religious tolerance, allowing its followers to be adherents of other religions, or even atheism.

The dominant belief in Druidism is the idea that the earth and nature is sacred and is worthy of worship in itself. For this reason some modern Druids are pantheistic, seeing the natural world as being divine itself. It is unknown if pantheism and direct nature worship were a part of ancient Celtic polytheism. There is no clear historical or archaeological evidence one way or the other.

Some modern druids practice meditation and visualization as a method of self transformation, particularly engaging the imagery of the four elements of the classical philosophers and the medieval alchemists. Earth, air, fire, and water are considered symbolic of aspects of nature and are sometimes linked symbolically to the four cardinal directions, the four seasons, and the four stages of human life: birth, maturation, old age, and death. Elemental symbolism is fluid and varies from group to group. Some modern druids believe that the ancient Celts did not adopt the Greek system of four elements and prefer to use only a symbolic division of the cosmos into three realms: Sea (the lower realm), Land (the middle realm), and Sky (the upper realm).

The Neopagan branch of Druidism in the United States can be traced to one particular root in the Reformed Druids of North America, which was founded by protesting college students. The history of this organization is interesting and one of the best documented histories of any druidic organization.

The founding of the first congregation of the Reformed Druids of North America in 1963 proved influential in giving birth to other Neopagan organizations. Carleton College’s requirement that each student participate regularly in religious services caused a minor rebellion of several students who started calling themselves druids. This religion was designed mainly to annoy and challenge the college administration and its attempt to enforce particular religious sects. 

This tiny movement came to be called The Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA), a pun on the genetic molecule. Despite its jocular culture, Celtic mythology, spiritual eclecticism, more general countercultural agitation, and easygoing self irony were also important themes by the time the religious requirement was rescinded in 1964. The loss of the specific protest motivation did not weaken the RDNA, which still exists today.

It was later developed into actual religious practices. These retained much of the humor with which the Carleton druids were founded but became increasingly seen as a legitimate spiritual pursuit by its founders, one which permitted the students of a largely Episcopalian college to explore their own consciences.

The Ancient Order of Druids in America, established in 1912, considers Druidry as a path of nature spirituality and inner transformation founded on personal experience rather than dogmatic belief. It is a church in the original sense of the word, a community of people following a spiritual path together. It welcomes men and women of all national origins, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and affiliations with other Druidic and spiritual traditions. Ecological awareness and commitment to an earth-honoring lifestyle, celebration of the cycles of nature through seasonal ritual, and personal development through meditation and other spiritual exercises form the core of its work. Involvement in the arts, healing practices, and traditional esoteric studies are among its applications and expressions.

John Michael Greer currently serves as the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, a position he has held since 2002. He is an author, historian of ideas, Hermeticist and Druid who resides in Ashland, Oregon.

His first book, Paths of Wisdom, a study of the Golden Dawn system of Qabalah, was published in 1996, and has been followed by many other books on magical and esoteric traditions and their histories, including an encyclopedic work on secret societies, The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Hidden History. Forthcoming titles will cover an exploration of UFO phenomenologies and histories, and esoteric Western Physical Culture. He has practiced gardening, Tai Chi and related internal arts for decades.

Greer has shown an interest in oil and other resource depletion, which he believes will bring about fundamental, global changes in societies for centuries to come.

Volcanic rocks form from volcanic lava near the surface of the earth. They differ from igneous rocks which form from magma below the surface of the earth. The lavas of different volcanoes, when cooled and hardened, differ much in their appearance and composition. If a rhyolite lava stream cools quickly, it can quickly freeze into a black glassy substance called obsidian. When filled with bubbles of gas, the same lava may form the spongy mineral pumice. Allowed to cool slowly, it forms a light-colored, uniformly solid rock called rhyolite.

The lavas, having cooled rapidly in contact with the air or water, are mostly finely crystalline or have at least fine grained ground mass representing that part of the viscous semicrystalline lava flow which was still liquid at the moment of eruption. At this time they were exposed only to atmospheric pressure, and the steam and other gases, which they contained in great quantity were free to escape.

Many important modifications arise from this, the most striking being the frequent presence of numerous steam cavities often drawn out to elongated shapes subsequently filled up with minerals by infiltration. As crystallization was going on while the mass was still creeping forward under the surface of the Earth, the latest formed minerals in the ground mass are commonly arranged in subparallel winding lines following the direction of movement and the larger early minerals which had previously crystallized may show the same arrangement. 

Most lavas have fallen considerably below their original temperatures before they are emitted. In their behavior they present a close analogy to hot solutions of salts in water, which, when they approach the saturation temperature, first deposit a crop of large, well formed crystals and subsequently precipitate clouds of smaller less perfect crystalline particles. 

In igneous rocks the first generation of crystals generally forms before the lava has emerged to the surface, that is to say, during the ascent from the subterranean depths to the crater of the volcano. It has frequently been verified by observation that freshly emitted lavas contain large crystals borne along in a molten, liquid mass. The large, well-formed, early crystals are said to be porphyritic, which means that there is a large difference between the size of the tiny matrix crystals and other much larger crystals. The smaller crystals of the surrounding matrix or ground mass belong to the post effusion stage. 

More rarely lavas are completely fused at the moment of ejection. They may then cool to form a finely crystalline rock, or if more rapidly chilled may in large part be non crystalline or glassy, such as obsidian, tachylyte, pitchstone. A common feature of glassy rocks is the presence of rounded bodies consisting of fine divergent fibres radiating from a center. They consist of imperfect crystals of feldspar, mixed with quartz or tridymite. Similar bodies are often produced artificially in glasses which are allowed to cool slowly. Rarely these spherulites are hollow or consist of concentric shells with spaces between. Perlitic structure, also common in glasses, consists of the presence of concentric rounded cracks owing to contraction on cooling.

The porphyritic minerals are not only larger than those of the ground mass, but as the matrix was still liquid when they formed they were free to take perfect crystalline shapes, without interference by the pressure of adjacent crystals. They seem to have grown rapidly, as they are often filled with enclosures of glassy or finely crystalline material like that of the ground mass. 

Microscopic examination of the larger crystals of the phenocrysts, which are the larger fragments in the rock, often reveals that they have had a complex history. Very frequently they show layers of different composition, indicated by variations in color or other optical properties. Augite may be green in the center surrounded by various shades of brown, or they may be pale green centrally and darker green at the periphery. In the feldspars the center is usually richer in calcium than the surrounding layers, and successive zones may often be noted, each containing less calcium than those which lie within it. 

Phenocrysts of quartz, instead of sharp, perfect crystalline faces, may show rounded corroded surfaces, with the points blunted and irregular tongue like projections of the matrix into the substance of the crystal. It is clear that after the mineral had crystallized it was partly again dissolved or corroded at some period before the matrix solidified. 

The term sensorium refers to the sum of an organism’s perception, the seat of sensation where it experiences and interprets the environments within which it lives. In medical, psychological, and physiological discourse it has come to refer to the total character of the unique and changing sensory environments perceived by individuals. These include the sensation, perception, and interpretation of information about the world by senses, perceptual systems and minds.

In the 20th century the concept behind the sensorium became a key part of the cultural theories of Marshall McLuhan, Edmund Carpenter and Walter J. Ong. McLuhan, like his mentor Harold Innis, believed that media were biased according to time and space. He paid particular attention to what he called the sensorium, or the effects of media on our senses, positing that media affect us by manipulating the ratio of our senses. For example, the alphabet stresses the sense of sight, which in turn causes us to think in linear, objective terms. The medium of the alphabet thus has the effect of reshaping the way in which we, collectively and individually, perceive and understand our environment.

Focusing on variations in the sensorium across social contexts, these theorists collectively suggest that the world is explained and experienced differently depending on the specific ratios of sense that members of a culture share in the sensoria they learn to inhabit. More recent work has demonstrated that individuals may include in their unique sensoria perceptual proclivities that exceed their cultural norms, even when, as in the history of smell in the West, the sense in question is suppressed or mostly ignored.

This interplay of various ways of conceiving the world could be compared to the experience of synesthesia, where stimulus of one sense causes a perception by another, seemingly unrelated sense, as in musicians who can taste the intervals between notes they hear, or artists who can smell colours. Many individuals who have one or more senses restricted or lost develop a sensorium with a ratio of sense which favours those they possess more fully. Frequently the blind or deaf speak of a compensating effect, whereby their touch or smell become more acute, changing the ways they perceive and reason about the world. Especially telling examples are found in the cases of ‘wild children,’ whose early childhoods were spent in abusive, neglected or non-human environments, both intensifying and minimizing perceptual abilities.

Although some consider these modalities abnormal, it is more likely that these examples demonstrate the contextual and socially learned nature of sensation. A ‘normal’ sensorium and a ‘synesthetic’ one differ based on the division, connection, and interplay of the body’s manifold sensory apparatus. A synesthete has simply developed a different set of relationships, including cognitive or interpretive skills which deliver unique abilities and understanding of the world. The sensorium is a creation of the physical, biological, social and cultural environments of the individual organism and its relationships while being in the world.

These sorts of insights were the impetus for the development of the burgeoning field of sensory anthropology, which seeks to understand other cultures from within their own unique sensoria. Anthropologists have focused on a critique of the hegemony of vision and textuality in the social sciences. They argue persuasively for an understanding and analysis that is embodied, one sensitive to the unique context of sensation of those one wishes to understand. They believe that a thorough awareness and adoption of other sensoria is a key requirement if ethnography is to approach true understanding.

A related area of study is sensory ecology. This field aims at understanding the unique sensory and interpretive systems all organisms develop, based on the specific ecological environments they live in, experience and adapt to. A key researcher in this field has been psychologist James J. Gibson, who has written numerous seminal volumes considering the senses in terms of holistic, self-contained perceptual systems. These exhibit their own mindful, interpretive behaviour, rather than acting simply as conduits delivering information for cognitive processing, as in more representational philosophies of perception or theories of psychology. Perceptual systems detect affordances in objects in the world, directing attention towards information about an object in terms of the possible uses it affords an organism.

The individual sensory systems of the body are only parts of these broader perceptual ecologies, which include the physical apparatus of sensation, the environment being sensed, as well as both learned and innate systems for directing attention and interpreting the results. These systems represent and enact the information required to perceive, identify or reason about the world, and are distributed across the very design and structures of the body, in relation to the physical environment, as well as in the concepts and interpretations of the mind. This information varies according to species, physical environment, and the context of information in the social and cultural systems of perception, which also change over time and space, and as an individual learns through living. Any single perceptual modality may include or overlap multiple sensory structures, as well as other modes of perception, and the sum of their relations and the ratio of mixture and importance comprise a sensorium. The perception, understanding, and reasoning of an organism is dependent on the particular experience of the world delivered by changing ratios of sense.

A complex is a group of mental factors that are unconsciously associated by the individual with a particular subject or connected by a recognizable theme which influences the individual’s attitude and behavior. Their existence is widely agreed upon in the area of depth psychology at least, being instrumental in the systems of both Freud and Jung. They are generally a way of mapping the psyche, and are crucial theoretical items of common reference to be found in therapy.

The term complex was adopted by Carl Jung when he was still a close associate of Sigmund Freud. Jung described a complex as a node in the unconscious. It may be imagined as a knot of unconscious feelings and beliefs, detectable indirectly, through behavior that is puzzling or hard to account for.

Jung found evidence for complexes very early in his career, in the word association tests conducted at the psychiatric clinic of Zurich University, where Jung worked from 1900-1908. In the word association tests, a researcher read a list of words to each subject, who was asked to say, as quickly as possible, the first thing that came to mind in response to each word. Researchers timed subjects’ responses, and noted any unusual reactions such as hesitations, slips of the tongue, signs of emotion. Jung was interested in patterns he detected in subjects’ responses, hinting at unconscious feelings and beliefs.

In Jung’s theory, complexes may be conscious, partly conscious, or unconscious. They may be related to traumatic experiences, or not. There are many kinds of complex, but at the core of any complex is a universal pattern of experience, or archetype. Some of the key complexes Jung wrote about were the anima (a node of unconscious beliefs and feelings in a man’s psyche relating to the opposite gender), the animus (the corresponding complex in a woman’s psyche), and the shadow (Jung’s term embracing any aspect of psyche which has been excluded from conscious awareness).

Many Jungian complexes appear in complementary pairs. The puer, or eternal youth, often appears in relationship to the senex, or archetypal old man. A puer complex might manifest as an individual’s unconscious dread of growing up or of losing one’s romantic ideals or freedom. A senex complex, by contrast, might be seen in a person who, without seeming to understand why, is driven to act out an old man role in creative or destructive ways. Only when a complex results in destructive behavior would it be seen as pathological. Otherwise, a Jungian view of psyche accepts the presence of diverse complexes in ordinary health.

One of the key differences between Jungian and Freudian theory is that Jung’s thought posits several different kinds of complex, and emphasizes duality or plurality rather than unity as a basic condition of the human psyche. Freud held that the Oedipus complex was universal, reflecting developmental challenges that face every child, and was the central complex in most or all psychopathology.

Once Jung broke from Freud and the two men went their own ways, forming their own disciplines behind them, there was a brief movement in some of Freud’s circle to remove all of Jung’s work and terminology from their school of psychoanalysis. Freud himself however refused, and so the name complex stayed.

The American Crow is a distinctive bird with iridescent black feathers all over. Its legs, feet and bill are also black. They are 16-20 inches in length, of which the tail makes up about 40%. Each wing is around 7-8 inches long. The bill length is on average 2 inches, varying strongly according to location.

The most usual call is a loud, short, and rapid caah-caah-caah. Usually, the birds thrust their heads up and down as they utter this call. American Crows can also produce a wide variety of sounds and sometimes mimic noises made by other animals, including other birds.

American Crows are monogamous and cooperative. Mated pairs form large families of up to 15 individuals from several breeding seasons that remain together for many years. Offspring from a previous nesting season will usually remain with the family to assist in rearing new nestlings.

Outside of the few months of the breeding season, Crows are extremely gregarious. After the last young have fledged, the family group usually joins other groups of Crows, and these begin to form a large flock that divides up for feeding during the day, but gathers again each night to roost. The roost becomes an important focal point in the birds’ life outside the breeding season. 

Each morning the roost breaks up into smaller flocks that disperse across the countryside to feed. Some flocks may fly up to fifty miles from the roost each day. In midafternoon these smaller flocks start back toward the communal roost. They fly along fixed flight lines used each day and are joined by other flocks as they go. Often there are preroosting sites, where flight lines coincide and Crows stop to feed before making the final trip to the roost.

At these spots there may be much chasing and often spectacular dives as the returning Crows join the others at the preroosting spot. Then just before dusk all the Crows in the area enter the roost site together. These last flights into the roost can be spectacular, for they may contain anywhere from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand birds. The largest roosts are where birds migrating from the north come together with local, year round residents.

Crows are smart and adaptable. For example, they drop nuts on streets so cars run over them, then wait for the traffic signal to change so they can pick up the food. Other crows who see this happen quickly learn how to do this for themselves.

Technology hacker Joshua Klein has been studying crows for over ten years and has learned that they are very intelligent. He has distributed a video of how a crow learned to use a tool to pull an object out of of a tube with a bendable wire.

Joshua built a vending machine that teaches crows to deposit coins they find into a special vending machine that dispenses peanuts. His machine uses Skinnerian training. He put coins and peanuts around the machine. The crows ate the peanuts on the feeder tray. Then Joshua took away the nuts and left coins in the feeder tray. The crows gathered the coins around with their beaks, looking for food. When a coin accidentally dropped into the slot, it dispensed a peanut. Next, Joshua took away the coins. The crows learned to find coins elsewhere and deposit them.

Anecdotes of crows birds snatching up shiny human valuables are plentiful, and many of them are undoubtedly true. Watches freshly removed in the outdoors are a favorite. They are certainly capable of detecting shiny and colorful items. But in all these cases, the items are probably perceived as potential food. It is likely that the shape of the object is more important than its color and brightness.

Detailed reports from people who have raised crows in captivity provide some telling clues. A classic 1927 report comes from Norman Criddle of Manitoba, Canada, who raised four young crows. He reported that they regularly collected a wide variety of objects together and then hid them. When they became older, they regularly hid food items for later eating, including shoving berries under a handkerchief in Criddle’s own front shirt pocket.

This tallies with modern observations that young birds aren’t sure of the food value of all the various items they see day to day, so they hide some to experiment with later. It is quite likely that many of shiny object theft reports are the work of young birds experimenting with possible food.

Bernd Heinrich, a University of Vermont biology professor, got even more detailed information in his work with young crows. He was intrigued when he gave them an egg and they immediately attempted to eat it, even though they had never seen one before. Presenting crows with objects, both edible and inedible, of various shapes, he found they would faithfully attempt to eat any smooth rounded object, including hickory nuts, a ping pong ball, film canisters and a red and white fishing float.

He also experimented by secretly burying a piece of roadkill they liked in different places under snow. He found they used visual cues in the disturbances of the snow rather than smell to find the roadkill again. This shows sight is critical to the birds’ food-finding. Our small valuables such as coins, rings, and watches tend to be smooth and rounded. It’s likely the birds simply consider them a meal, and dump them later when it’s clear they’re not.

American Crows are protected internationally by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Despite attempts by humans in some areas to drive away or eliminate these birds, they remain widespread and very common. The number of individual American Crows is estimated to be around 31,000,000. The large population, as well as its vast range, are the reasons why the American Crow is considered to be of least concern, meaning that the species is not threatened.