My name is Loma Pendergraft, and I’m a university instructor who specializes in animal behavior. I’m also one of Seattle’s local crow experts!
I’ve long been fascinated by the intelligence of crows and other members of their taxonomic family (a group known as “Corvids”); it never ceases to amaze me when I hear stories that demonstrate just how smart they are. Have you heard about Betty, the New Caledonian crow that created a tool to retrieve some out-of-reach food? Did you know that European magpies can recognize themselves in the mirror? Were you surprised to find out that American crows can identify and remember human faces? These stories and others like them testify to the astonishing brain power that these birds possess.
I earned my doctorate from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington by studying crows in John Marzluff’s Avian Conservation Laboratory. My master’s thesis focused on the different vocalizations that American crows give around food, and my doctoral dissertation examined their ability to learn novel tasks and what happens inside their brain throughout the learning process.