The Bird Brain Challenge: Could a Crow Outsmart You?

Could a crow outsmart you? That's the question your family gets to answer this week. Crows, ravens, jays, and magpies all belong to a bird family called corvids. Among all the birds on Earth, only parrots rival them for brainpower. They hide food and find it months later, solve tricky puzzles, and even remember human faces.

This unit study turns your backyard and kitchen table into a bird brain testing lab. Your kids will hide treasure like a Clark's nutcracker, race a blue jay to find hidden peanuts, and build a puzzle worthy of a crow. Every resource here is free, and most of the activities use things you already have at home.

Create Your Own Birds

Start your adventure with some bird art. Little ones can trace their hands for wings to build a handprint crow or color free magpie pages. Budding artists can follow along with How to Draw a Crow.

Older kids and teens can build a 3D paper bag raven with masking tape and paint. Pair it with Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" for a spooky October read-aloud.

While little hands are busy, share these fun facts:

• Magpies know their own reflection. Scientists in Germany put a small colored sticker on magpies where the birds could only see it in a mirror. The magpies tried to reach the sticker with their beaks and feet, which showed they knew the bird in the mirror was them. Magpies were the first birds ever shown to pass this mirror test.
• American crows can recognize individual human faces and remember how each person has treated them.
• Even though it croaks instead of sings, the common raven belongs to the same bird group as robins and sparrows, and it's the largest songbird in the world. A big raven can weigh almost three pounds.

Go on a Bird Hunt

Next, head outside. Download the free Audubon Bird Guide App and see how many corvids your family can spot on a walk around the neighborhood. If you live in the West, watch for black-billed magpies with their long tails and flashy black-and-white feathers. Keep a tally and see which corvid your family finds first.

Back inside, little ones can settle in with a free American crow nature study notebook. It has a picture study, a short poem by Robert Frost, and coloring pages. Older kids can read Corvids Are Cool, a kids' wildlife newsletter about the corvids of Idaho, including the black-billed magpie. It comes with its own activity pages.

The Memory Challenge

Clark's nutcrackers bury pine seeds in thousands of hiding spots each fall and dig them up months later. Can your kids do better?

Younger kids can test their memory with Caching In, an activity in the Day 3: Bird Brains section of Bird Buddies. Hide small treats around the yard, wait a few hours, and see how many your kids can find. Older kids can play Nutcracker Fantasy, a hide-and-seek game where they color sunflower seeds, hide them outside, and do the math on how their memory stacks up against a bird's.

If jays visit your yard, the whole family can try the Backyard Jay Memory Game. Set out a dozen peanuts where the birds can see them and time how fast they disappear. Move the peanuts the next day and see if the jays are still quick.

The Puzzle Challenge

Start with a story. Read The Crow and the Pitcher, Aesop's fable about a thirsty crow that drops pebbles into a pitcher until the water rises high enough to drink. Then let your kids test it for themselves with the Crow and the Pitcher activity in the Bird Buddies Bird Brains section.

Scientists have tried this with real crows, and the birds figured it out. Watch New Caledonian crows drop stones into tubes of water to raise a floating treat within reach.

Next, find out what makes magpies such clever birds in Why Magpies Are the Smartest Birds on Earth. Younger kids will love about why Ravens Are Super Smart! too.

Then flip the challenge around. In What Puzzle-Solving Crows Can Teach Us, your kids design their own animal puzzle and test it on a family member who has to use a pair of pliers as a beak. Expect lots of laughing.

Become a Bird Expert

Older kids ready for a bigger mission can research and write a short report on the corvid family. Clever Curious Corvids is a great place to start. Have them pick the corvid that surprised them most and explain what makes it so clever.

Younger kids who want more can work through the free Clever Crows unit. It spends five days on where crows live, what they eat, and how they talk to each other.

Collect Your Treasures Like a Magpie

Legend says magpies and dragons guard piles of glittering treasure. In our Magpie Planner, a bookish magpie and a band of baby dragons collect something even better: books.

Kids can draw the cover of every book they finish, rate their favorites, and keep a list of the reading treasures they're still hunting. Along the way, they'll plan their daily quests, set weekly goals, and write down their proud magpie moments. There's even a Questions for a Curious Magpie page, perfect for everything your kids wonder about corvids this week. Printable stickers and bookmarks finish off the hoard.

The Magpie Planner is free only for Homeschool Quest newsletter subscribers. Join the Homeschool Quest newsletter to claim your copy.

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