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17 September 2026
A crow is easy to underestimate.
It is small, dark and common enough that many of us barely notice it.
But the New Caledonian crow has surprised scientists for decades.
These birds are known to make and use tools. They can shape materials such as twigs and leaves to help them reach food hidden inside wood or vegetation.
In one famous laboratory experiment, a crow named Betty became widely known for bending a piece of wire into a hook when the usual tool was unavailable.
The discovery attracted considerable attention because it showed just how flexible animal problem-solving could be.
But perhaps the more interesting lesson is not that a bird can make a tool.
It is that intelligence does not always look the way we expect.
We tend to recognise intelligence when it speaks, writes or calculates.
Nature has never agreed to those rules.
A bird can look at a piece of material and find a possibility that was not obvious to us.
Scientists continue to study exactly how such abilities work.
For the rest of us, perhaps there is a simpler lesson.
Never assume that something is ordinary simply because we have stopped looking closely at it.
Rajat Chandra Sarmah
Guwahati, Assam, India
Instagram @rajatchandrasarmah5
YouTube: conversewithasmile
Email: rajatchandrasarmah@gmail.com
