00:00A crow on a window ledge on the campus of Frankfurt University Hospital.
00:06At first glance, nothing unusual. Or is it?
00:10The bird is actually letting its human friend inside know it's arrived.
00:15The crow stops by every day to enjoy a handful of tasty nuts.
00:22We show the footage to ornithologist Bernd Petry.
00:25He's surprised, but not overly so.
00:32It's really unusual, but it's also yet another example of how a crow gets used to someone and recognizes them.
00:39They're good at that. They see eyebrows, eyes, mouth, nose.
00:44They know straight away whether they're looking at Mr. Schmidt or Mr. Schultz.
00:48They're smart, intelligent and fast learners.
00:51And this crow realized at some point that this human was friendly and offered food.
00:56Then it lost its fear of them.
00:59The man behind the window isn't actually named Schmidt or Schultz.
01:04He prefers to remain anonymous.
01:06But we're still allowed to tell his story in our report.
01:13The friendship began at his home near the hospital.
01:17He first saw the crow when it began pulling things out of the compost bin on his terrace.
01:22He decided to start feeding it.
01:25And before long, something astonishing happened.
01:28It showed up at his place of work.
01:34The crow must have thought, hey, that guy is going out.
01:37So it followed him, watched where he went, and saw him going inside.
01:42Probably at some point he opened a window in the building and the crow recognized him.
01:46He fed it again, and that was the connection.
01:52Crows have far more talents than you might think.
01:56This is a carrion crow.
02:00Crows and ravens are at the top of the evolutionary ladder in the bird world.
02:05They're highly developed, really intelligent, and excellent learners.
02:09They can think outside the box, shift perspectives,
02:13anticipate what another animal might do, or even what they might be thinking.
02:20Bernd Petry knows a lot about crows.
02:23He's felt drawn to them for a long time.
02:28As a child, I loved spending time outside, especially in winter.
02:35I'd be out with my sled and suddenly see clouds of black birds.
02:39Crows everywhere.
02:42I loved watching crows so much that I became an ornithologist and studied them.
02:51He also led us to this spot, where huge numbers of the birds gather in the evenings.
02:57A spectacular sight.
03:03But back to the university hospital crow.
03:06How long could the friendship between man and bird last?
03:12As long as this crow lives, it will keep visiting this window, keep looking for this man.
03:18And if he keeps being kind and feeding her, it will last a lifetime, until one of them dies.
03:29So, as long as they both shall live.
03:33The bonds of affection can last up to 15 years, a carrion crow's maximum lifespan.
03:40Just like in humans, the way to the bird's heart is through its stomach.
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