Interspecies Friends: Dog and Crow

Early this summer in a Portland, Oregon backyard, a bird’s nest fell from an 80-foot-high fir tree. One baby bird – a crow – died in the fall. Its sibling, found trembling in a nearby rhododendron plant, survived.

Homeowners Autumn Buck and Tedd Simmons hoped the bird’s mother would return but she did not, so they made a nest of fir needles, twigs, and leaves in a basket, and hung it about six feet off the ground from a branch. They fed the orphan wet kibble and mashed up bananas, and prayed it would survive.

The bird lived, in no small part because of the household’s 5-year-old border collie named Meeko, who stood guard by the tree and chased would-be assassins (stray cats) from the yard. In time, a bond formed.

Buck named the crow Russell after actor Russell Crowe (but included  “Sheryl” as a middle name, in case the bird turns out to be a female).

“Russ thought Meeko was his mother,” Buck tells the Washington Post.

As Russell healed, crow and dog became inseparable. Despite their size differences — Meeko weighs roughly 35 pounds, Russell about 12 ounces — they bonded and hung out together, as the bird followed the dog around the yard and adopted some canine behaviors, like gnawing on pinecones and playing fetch.

Russell would perch on Meeko’s tail as they lounged in the backyard or on the front porch. At night the bird sleeps in a nearby chestnut tree, but it greets Meeko (and Buck) on the porch every morning. Sometimes Russell pecks on a glass door until Meeko is let outside to join his pal.

By July, Russell had figured out how to fly and scavenge for food, which it found in the form of bugs, blackberries, and hazelnuts. As adorable as the dog-crow relationship may be, Buck is pleased to see that Russell is also spending time with other crows. The ideal happy ending would be if Russell finds a partner and starts a family of his/her own, perhaps even bringing a new brood around next year to meet the dog and the humans.

“There’s an important lesson there, you know, about everybody coexisting and getting along,” Buck says, “even if you are completely different from someone.”

Photo credit: Autumn Buck