Get a fake cover for it with the title How to Pretend to Read in Public.
They are territorial, so you can sometimes recognize them based on location and number when there's nothing else distinguishable about them. There used to be two of them that would claim my front yard as their territory and they'd claim first access to any food that was put out and drive off competitors. They increased in number though and I could tell they had some kids because they did the whole squawking fledgling act where they scream to be fed constantly. So now there are more members of the family that dominate the area.
Different sets will follow me around in different parts of the neighborhood, again reflecting the territorial aspect. There's one couple a few blocks from my house that is highly distinguishable because one of the birds has a wonky wing. My neighbor named that was Twitch and its mate is Shogun.
Here's a post featuring them and one of their fledglings: https://lemmy.ml/post/17566746
There's a crow at my work who hides his treats in a particular patch of grass and so I call him Stash. I've seen him drive off other crows who get near his stashes.
I carry cat treats with me since you can carry so many in a small pouch in a pocket. They supposedly like unsalted peanuts in the shell too, but you can't carry as many on a walk. They still follow me when I run out of treats, so I make sure I carry a lot. They've also come up on my porch and eaten wet meaty cat food.
I work at a college campus. Several crows will follow me when I'm walking around since they know I'm a source of snacks. This one was following me from building to building while I was putting up flyers.
Most of the calls in my neighborhood tend to be shorter bursts—territorial or assembly calls. The greater frequency calls tend to be reserved for when a hawk or owl is around and needs to be mobbed once backup arrives. The fact that the similar sounding duck quacking is interspersed seems to indicate imitation to me.
Still pretty common today.
Yeah, I keep whatever non-perishable objects they bring me. So far it's just the three stones.
I got a few stones from them in the bird bath in my front yard, which was awesome—A red quartz, a white quartz, and a random piece of concrete. Today they left fries in the bird bath, so, you know, thought that counts... Or they were just softening their food up and something interrupted the meal.
US patents expire after 20 years.
I recently read In the Company of Crows and Ravens and the authors mentioned that crows have come to specifically recognize the McDonald's logo on a bag as a likelier source of food than a plain bag.
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Yeah, a bit. The fledglings who still demand to be fed by their parents are found following the parent around and squawking loudly. This one is an adult and he was just sitting on the branch by himself feeling the breeze.