Ravens and crows are my favorite birds. I've read that they are some of the smartest *animals* in the whole animal kingdom, and they certainly have a sense of humor, often devious.
If you can find a copy of MIND OF THE RAVEN Investigations and Adventures With Wolf-Birds by Bernd Heinrich. A fascinating read.
A Cree trapper told me several incredible stories which illustrated his conviction that ravens are smart birds. He was a gifted story teller and also had the natives superstition but after a while had me convinced.
One story saw him snowshoeing along a long point that jutted out into a lake, and being a hunter, as he neared the end of the point where the trees thinned he stopped and checked through them to check the far shore. It was a lucky day, and a herd of caribou browsed willows tips across the lake but with the open expanse of ice between him and the animals there was no way to stalk them unseen. As he stood thinking, three ravens silently flew over him at quite a height, then they noticed him and immediately changed course toward the caribou. When they reached the other shore they landed on the far side of the animals and started to jump around, flap their wings and croak loudly. This spooked the herd out across the lake toward the waiting hunter and the wooded point where there was an easy shot.
He figured the ravens learned to do this with wolves, and when the wolves were successful, the raven would eat too.
