When COVID started, I too was desperate for something other than dire news. I went and picked up "Bark Butter Bites", which are chunks of peanut butter, corn and beef suet enriched with calcium. In short, it is ideal food for a bird. They go nuts for the stuff! I started feeding them to the crows in the neighbourhood, which is surrounded by forests.
Well, you know. It's been well over a year now. I walk 3 times a day and I have never left the house without these peanuty treats in my pocket. The crows have formed a parameter around my house and escort me everywhere. They come very close, have shown many, many examples of extreme intelligence, empathy and humour. But what's struck me is just how much social grace they possess. They have a crystal clear understanding of mutually sane boundaries. They know where I live, but will not disturb us in anyway. They show absolute and respectful care around "my nest".
One funny story is, after getting used to one of our common walking routes that breaks into a forest trail, the _entire gang_ showed up one day. We think there was a sort of meeting, as normally the locals in this spot around around 5-20. This day, there were 100+.
I took too long to notice, though, as I started dishing out food, only to realize... "Hey look! There are... 10... 15... 20... 40 --Fuuu-oh-oh -- Oh _shit_!" -- something like a crow tornado whirled through the street. And it's 7am! And they're loud!
We decide to turn back home (running), only to wind up crossing a road near a school -- relatively busy with commuter traffic, even during COVID -- and are followed by no less than 100 crows. The people in the cars and on the street are all staring, mouths agape, as two random people cross by surrounded by a cawing mass of grateful, hungry and black feathery insanity. Back again, as soon as we got very close to home... they went: "Ahhh, okay, well, bye!" and left quietly.
I love 'em.