Here in Australia most people now buy food and drink by tapping their bank cards on a reader. Can't be long now until a particularly smart crow sees this at a beach side shop, and steals a card to copy this. Is a shopkeeper obligated to serve other species? I for one will welcome our new flying thief overlords.
Joshua Klein built a crow vending machine with some success (using coins). Tap to pay could be quite a bit more profitable, though I assume you'd have a pretty high chargeback rate.
His research claims have been disputed, and an initially favorable NYT story about him ended up being retracted. I think he probably can't be cited anymore as a credible source on the question of crow intelligence.
If this video is to be believed, they understand the concept of using a card at an ATM, but can't quite grasp exactly what to do:
To be fair, when ATMs were first introduced here, most people struggled to use them too
I think I saw a video of some bird puzzle where they have to tap the right thing with their beak to get a treat. It doesn't seem too far removed from entering a PIN code. I bet you could teach them to do that.
Also, it doesn't seem unreasonable to think they would learn to insert a credit card into the machine given that they're good at manipulating sticks and stones and putting them into places.
Tapping buttons on a vending machine and then tapping a contactless bank card seems like the most promising route for a crow to buy food.
I await a birds nest made from $20 bills.
Take a picture of that, write “capitalism” underneath then bring it to an art gallery and you’re rich.