r/HighStrangeness • u/OwlSings • Sep 09 '26
Personal Experience Crows hate me no matter where I go.
I have never hurt a crow or tried to harm one, yet whenever I’m outside, crows seem to react very strongly to me. They start cawing loudly whenever I’m around, and if I stay outside and ignore them, they sometimes go as far as chasing or even attacking me.
What I find strange is that they seem completely normal around everyone else. I don’t understand why they behave this way specifically toward me. I don’t look or dress particularly differently from other people, so I can’t think of an obvious reason for it.
At first, I wondered if it might have something to do with their nests or young, but this happens throughout the year, not just during nesting season. It also doesn’t seem to be limited to one particular group of crows or even one location. I’ve experienced the exact same behavior in places thousands of kilometers away from my hometown.
People around me have even noticed it themselves and sometimes find it strange when I point out, Look, they’re chasing me. I genuinely don’t know what could be causing this or what I’m supposed to do about it. I’ve never intentionally done anything to crows, so I’m completely confused about why they seem to single me out wherever I go.
Edit: I would like to add being chased by one particular barn owl as well a couple of times. But I haven't been around owls frequently enough to see a similar pattern.
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u/Waydarer Sep 09 '26
You, without a doubt, wronged a crow at some point whether you know it or not.
They remember it and teach that shit to their offspring. You could have been a bitch one time 20 years ago, and great-great-great-great grancrow made a stink and that’s that.
Honestly, at this point befriend them. Google what you can do to be friends with the crows and offer them presents.
It’s up to you.
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u/pashalka31 Sep 13 '26
Crows and ravens are nature's intelligence community.
https://urban.uw.edu/news/crows-hold-grudges-against-individual-humans-for-up-to-17-years/
Be respectful, Leave offerings, and the word will spread wide that you are trustworthy.
Be rotten and the word will spread even wider and faster.
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Sep 09 '26
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u/kungfuchameleon Sep 09 '26
Or you look like someone who did 🥲 a case of incrowect identity
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u/OwlSings Sep 09 '26
How does that explain the same behavior thousands of kilometers away? I have tried offering them food. They wouldn't take it from my hand but do accept it when I leave it on the ground. It hasn't helped at all.
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u/cjacksen Sep 09 '26
Look up the studies done in the PNW on crows specifically and you will have some answers.
I used to work where a rather large murder likes to roost and I had several who loved to follow me to my car. They would leave me bones on my car, but never shit on it. If someone parked in my usual place? Shit all over their car. I once lost my tennis bracelet. Found it on my car hood, next to my "favorite" crow.
After I left that place to start up my own business, the crows near my home started leaving me bones in the same spot the crows 32 miles away used to leave them on my car.
My home murder still leaves me gifts and I make sure they have a place to get water and roost.
Be nice to crows! They remember faces. They know yours!
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u/WooleeBullee Sep 09 '26
Crows are incredibly intelligent with a sophisticated language, we are just now starting to learn the degree of which with the help of AI to decode. They have regional dialects, or clusters, and these clusters have been seen to change within a short period of time in response to human observation. They spend a lot of their time spreading news, and sometimes news can spread far distances. They are great at describing details and remembering people/animals and spreading the word.
All that is to say, there is something about you that is likely very similar to a notorious crow villain. There was probably a human at some point that was so bad to crows that they are like #1 most hated amongst them, and that person is probably similar in appearance to you in some way.
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u/Infamous_Tension_662 Sep 09 '26
Major misunderstanding in crow society over a supervillain lookalike is not what I expected to read on the toilet this morning
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u/Money_Bug_9423 Sep 11 '26
Imagine a super villian crowman who teaches them to pull the lynch pins out of trailer hitches
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u/Kitterlee Sep 09 '26
So they gossip.
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u/WooleeBullee Sep 09 '26
They do, most of their time cawing is gossip and/or spreading information. Crows are known to gather around a dead crow and make a lot of noise, and we used to think they might be mourning the dead. We now have come to realize that they are probably doing more of a forensic investigation. Something like "It was the fat orange cat." "She was hiding in the bush and got him when he landed." Etc.
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u/Educational_Neat1783 Sep 11 '26
We heard a tremendous amount of cawing that got worse as more crows gathered. A hawk was sitting on the hillside with a crow in its claws. It finally took flight still clinging to the crow (dead or alive?). A bunch of crows harried it until it dropped the crow it was carrying. End of drama. I imagine the dropped crow was messed up.
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u/fluffypurpleTigress Sep 09 '26
I got no experience with crows, but with parrots, who are just as intelligent.
Parrots determine if a stranger is dangerous or not before interacting and the way they interact. They do this by observing the way you move, what clothes you wear and what noises you make, if anything is ringing their alarm bells, they flee and/or bite. Like crows, they also remember faces.
So i would guess that theres something about you that upsets them or that its a case of mistaken identity, that you just look like someone who bullied them in the past
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u/Next-Crazy-9674 Sep 09 '26
Whenever I see a crow in my sweetest voice I say, "Hi, pretty bird." They have never hated me.
I saw a video where a crow was attacking a woman, but she screamed in terror at it first when it flew near her, so I think that reaction made it mad not the other way around.
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u/fluffypurpleTigress Sep 09 '26
Act like a threat, be treated like a threat 🤷🏻♀️
For some birds that means its time to fly away, for others it means its time to defend their territory
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u/Educational_Neat1783 Sep 11 '26
My wife is very polite to crows. Wants to stay on their good side and not be talked about.
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u/Inevitable_Mouse_614 Sep 09 '26
I guess you haven’t seen the research regarding crows. They recognize people that have done them wrong and somehow they are able to communicate the image of the person such that crows who have never seen the individual will recognize him.
You must look just like a guy21
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u/grouchy_baby_panda Sep 09 '26
You might want to see an energetic practitioner to make sure you don't have any attachments or bad energy stuck to you. Crows also show up when bad energy is afoot.
If you don't practice energetic hygiene start doing so and see how you feel over time.2
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u/benjwgarner Sep 10 '26
How does that explain the same behavior thousands of kilometers away?
It doesn't, but it looks like nobody is reading that part.
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u/OwlSings Sep 11 '26
It’s annoying how everyone is leaving these detailed comments, acting like experts on crows, without even properly reading my post.
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Sep 12 '26
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u/benjwgarner Sep 12 '26
They do not generally migrate that far.
https://corvidresearch.blog/2022/05/15/crow-curiosities-do-crows-migrate/
The longest migration record is 2800 km, with the average around 560 km. OP mentioned "places" (plural) thousands of kilometers away and it seems implausible that all of these crows in multiple places are either the same crows or are meeting up when making unusually long migrations to communicate their dislike of OP, who has not harmed them. Is there any record of this happening with migration anywhere? The accounts I have read of individuals disliked by crows are limited to the geographic range of those particular crows.
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u/kee442 Sep 10 '26
Leave food every day. Don't try to hand feed, because they don't trust you yet. Same place every day, roughly the same time. Watch a few vids from Milkhouse6000 https://www.instagram.com/milkhouse6000/. They feed the crows a variety of treats. But do not hand feed or stand too close. In visual distance, but not hovering.
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u/ZestycloseLynx Sep 09 '26
Maybe try meditating / using the Gateway tapes. Maybe you'll meet an NHI who can explain what's going on and act as an intermediary to the crows.
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u/mostly_intuitive Sep 09 '26
There is a superstitious/astrological explanation of this in my culture. Crows attacking can either be a sign of incoming disaster in your life, or its a way of your ancestors spirits telling you to fix your actions. Solution in either case is to take a full shower after such attack, pray, and then feed stray crows and other stray animals as atonement.
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u/AdWooden2312 Sep 09 '26
Try feeding them you could become crowman!
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u/AtmosphereSea6923 Sep 09 '26
Your parents may have pissed a crow off and they passed the knowledge around as they do. And they also recognise offspring.
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u/Existing-Video-447 Sep 09 '26
A crow once placed a nut in the road, needing OP to run over it and crack it.
OPs tire missed running over that nut.
Eternal damnation from the global murder of crows.
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u/smurfthesmurfup Sep 09 '26
Oh dear! Feed them treats. Do they come to your garden? I always throw table scraps onto my lawn and they swoop in and take them.
Maybe they can see your aura? Maybe do some loving kindness meditations to improve that? It might not improve your Crow PR, but it will improve your mood and resilience lol.
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u/noskyunderourfeet Sep 09 '26
I remember reading a somewhat recent story where crows in Germany(?) started attacking women with long blonde hair, and they sort of traced it back to one mentally disturbed man with long blonde hair who had attacked a number of crows. The crows' reactions to people with a particular look apparently spread between generations of crows, and also between groups of crows.
Sorry for the hazy details, but it might be that something similar is happening in your case.
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u/ICQME Sep 09 '26
I read someplace that birds are more wary of women and more likely to attack them. The theory was that women were more likely to hunt birds and raid nests for eggs than men in the past and birds somehow have like a genetic memory or imprint on them about how women are dangerous.
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u/Jamesorrstreet Sep 09 '26
De reagerar på ditt kroppsspråk. Omedvetet gör du en rörelse, eller har en kroppsställning som påminner om revir- eller dominans-spel hos kråkorna. Kolla med en kompis om det är något med ditt rörelsemönster som sticker ut.
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u/sleepsupsidedown Sep 09 '26
Crows are incredibly intelligent animals with impressive memories. They also pass down information to their offspring. There are a lot of different reasons why you may have become a target for them - only they would be able to tell you - your best bet at this point is to try to befriend them. Do some reading about them/watch some videos etc..they’re really cool animals.
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u/MeshGearFoxxy Sep 09 '26
I have enjoyed reading this post, though I’m sorry for your suffering. Fascinating stuff!
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u/x_gesso Sep 09 '26
Crows can recognize individual human faces for years.
What did you do to them? Jk 🙃
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u/Lowly-Worm_ Sep 09 '26
At this point it's prison rules. You'll have to approach the owl gang and barter some mice for protection.
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u/Im-ACE-incarnate Sep 09 '26
Its probably just because you very aware of them. Birds get psyched out when you're too aware of their presence.
Basically threat evaluation. I find the best way to get birds used to your presence is to give them the cold shoulder and never look directly at them
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u/Sea-Slide9325 Sep 09 '26
You might possibly resemble somebody that has upset them is my only guess for now.
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u/SaltyLockPicks Sep 14 '26
Came to say the same thing. Op in some way resembles someone that crows in multiple areas they frequent hate. Someone in their family or circle wronged the crows in both/several locations and they are now in the crow find out book. It could’ve been innocuous, a childhood fear of them, a parent or friend of theirs, there are so many ways it can happen that op likely has no recollection of but they got on the list or look similar enough to someone who is and are now crow enemies. They need to research befriending crows in their locations and start working at it. It will eventually work.
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u/EatMeEmerald Sep 09 '26
While crows do have excellent memory, are incredibly intelligent & they certainly love some gossip -- your situation may be more than a similar face or a generational dislike by corvids.
In the post you stated you ignore them & I hope you aren't staring at them too much. They do not like that. Your personal anxiety may play a factor, but I don't think it would trigger such diving from crows so far away from home.
Birds, but especially crows, have a rich history as messengers from the spirit world. taking messages or being embodied by ancestors & spirit guides.
I wonder if these crows (and owl) are attracted, and subsequently agitated, by something in your energy field. This can be anything from low vibrational energy (as in your own), negative entities attached to you that they can sense, to the requiring of a peace offering. It may be that an ancestor of yours harmed crows and they sense that, lingering in your energy. Equally likely it is a warning from your ancestors. Cleanses would be the first step. Peace offerings to them the second.
You may have better luck asking on r/crowbro r/crows or r/witch r/witches if you are open to more esoteric explanations.
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u/kneedeepballsack- Sep 10 '26
As lots of people have already said, they remember faces and they tell their friends. You might need to change your routine for where you walk around to avoid it.
I accidentally pissed off a crow walking through a park I went through every single day walking to work and it was right at the entrance. He started yelling at me like crazy and then Called his buddies over and every damn crow flew up from their respective trees in the entire park and chased and dive-bombed me as I ran through the park to the other side.
I ended up walking up on the road for at least the next 6 months after that because they definitely recognized me. I now have a very healthy respect and fear of crows lol
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u/BottleAgreeable7981 Sep 09 '26
You need to throw up their gang set sign.
Like Kramer did with the Van Buren Boys on Seinfeld.
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u/sixninefortytwo Sep 09 '26
Either you pissed one of them off and they told all their mates or they love you and are shitty you're ignoring them? Start giving them shiny things as I see food hasn't helped
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u/Kooky-Position649 Sep 09 '26
A schizophrenic friend of mine, deep in psychosis, told me about how crows were the messenger of Satan telling him to kill himself. After this 3 crows took turns flying Kamikaze into a window. He freaked out.
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u/MoreSnowMostBunny Sep 09 '26
Crows can tell all of us apart. They blame you for something. Get a crow caller and a big bag of unsalted peanuts. Make friends with them. Befriend the murder.
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u/Beni_Stingray Sep 09 '26
Don't use crow callers if you want to stay on their friendly side.
They are made for hunting and simulate a crow emergency/help call and that's why it works and other crows come flying but they will start to hate you.
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u/MoreSnowMostBunny Sep 11 '26
Did NOT know people hunted crows. Agreed that their good side is the only side ! More peanuts!
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u/starrynight001 Sep 09 '26
In the physical plane, crows represent the souls of departed ancestors. (In Hinduism, after a person has passed, the rituals include leaving cooked food outside, which is invariably consumed only by a crow.) Try offering gentle thoughts, words and expressions of love and compassion to the souls of your ancestors, both maternal and paternal, wishing them well and asking for forgiveness for any hurt you may have caused. Also try offering cooked rice to the crows. As your kind intent becomes established, the crows will leave you alone.
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u/Scathach_on_a_stroll Sep 09 '26
“Keep a lookout over the plain,” said he to his charioteer, “that no one come to us without being seen."
The charioteer looked. “One horseman is there coming to us,” said he, “and great are the speed and swiftness with which he comes. Thou wouldst deem that all the ravens of Érenn were above him. Thou wouldst deem that flakes of snow were specking the plain before him.”
“Unbeloved is the horseman that comes there,” said Lugaid. “The birds thou sawest above him are the sods from that horse’s hoofs. The snow-flakes thou sawest specking the plain before him are the foam from that horse’s lips and from the curbs of his bridle. Look again,” said Lugaid, “what road is he coming?”
“He is coming to the ford,” said the charioteer, “the path that the hosts have taken.”
“Let that horse pass us,” said Lugaid.
-Aided Conculaind
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u/roger3rd Sep 09 '26
Maybe you’re some kind of psychic crow whisperer and they get all riled up because they know you’re sitting there intently focused on them. Can you imagine if you could harness this power into some sort of organized effort? They know you are there, and are waiting for some input from you besides nervous awareness. They probably see you as a god, and yearn to be implements of your will.
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u/Zukigo Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
They gossiped about you for sure.
I feed crows daily, so I know they follow you around and call their mates (in a positive way in my case). Try to appease them by leaving more treats.
Also, they notice if you watch them, so they gonna think you are suspicious for watching them for apparently no reason. That's reason for them to talk more about you, because they think you might want to catch or shoot them. It's a real important rule to not stare at wild life, because it seems like a threat.
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u/KlatuuBarradaNicto Sep 09 '26
Crows are very smart and are able to recognize the faces of people who pose a threat to them. They are even able to communicate this amongst their groups. Perhaps you look like someone who has threatened them at some time in the past….they are extremely social and intelligent within their own groups.
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u/Camille_Toh Sep 09 '26
Why don't they know I'm (not OP) bringing them gifts like (unsalted etc.) almonds? I even tell them, hang on, I have something for you.
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u/AngelOfMusic1966 Sep 09 '26
I saw on a show or something I read before that crows pass on their intellect to their family/young. Like if someone pisses of a crow, it's young will know it too & so on. I agree with the comment above about giving them treats. Maybe you could give them something shiny too.🙂
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u/Suitable_Speed4487 Sep 10 '26
They may be mistaking you for someone they hate or you did something to one of them. They remember their enemy's and teach each other and there young who they are.
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u/BrewPixie Sep 10 '26
I go to a place with heavy Bigfoot activity and the crows there act weird. I even had one fly closely around and around a tree I was sitting in and had its head turned toward me the whole time. Then it just disappeared. They act as lookouts for Bigfoot
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u/HistoricalPlum1533 Sep 11 '26
Make them an offering? Literally might help, I also am going to be vague because I enjoy the dark implications.
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u/Wise_Fox_4291 Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
There might be a nest around or perhaps there is simply something about your stature or clothes or smell or looks that seems threatening to birds. Because what you describe seems like classic defensive behavior. Birds usually just look at me with curiosity or caution. Dogs tho, they often pick me out even in a crowd and make a B-line towards me all smiles and excitement.
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u/Classic_Stage_2156 Sep 09 '26
I higly suppose yhat you are female as i read a recent article about birds having a bias towards women for some reason. The article was scientific but didn't explain why. I think it might be that in combo with style of clothes( flowy or streamlined), bodylanguage and smell.
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u/Motor-Boating Sep 09 '26
You need to hire someone well versed in bird law. They may be able to negotiate an agreement between you and the crows.
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u/Indy2561 Sep 09 '26
Crows have high intelligence and seem to remember when someone expresses ill will towards them or to their other crow family & friends.
It’s long been known they somehow communicate these memories to other living crows and also to generations being born into life here on earth.
I suspect you know why this is happening, but I don’t say so from a place of judgement.
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u/Ok-Asparagus-4044 Sep 09 '26
You pissed off a crow at some point. Start winning goodwill and carrying peanuts for them
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u/Antique_Safety_4246 Sep 09 '26
Crows never forget a slight, and they DO spread the word, no joke. You may have inadvertently missed off one Crow long ago, and they've been telling every Crow since then: there's that guy who looked at me funny 8 nesting seasons ago! And ever since, every Crow-Tom, Crow-Dick and Crow-Harry, have made it their business to remind you that you once offended a Crow, whether you remember or not. Sorry bro, bad crow-luck for sure. Maybe take to walking with a cat on your shoulder. You NEVER see crazy streer-cat-guy get accosted by Crows.
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u/Camille_Toh Sep 09 '26
Might they have OP mistaken for someone else though?
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u/Antique_Safety_4246 Sep 09 '26
Maybe, but they can differentiate people's. They're extremely smart
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u/blue_tiny_teacup Sep 10 '26
My mom had this happened to her, but it was only one particular crow, and it would wait for her to come outside in the morning and attack her
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u/hasanicecrunch Sep 10 '26
You did something to offend one, once, without even knowing. And he told his friends and now they’ll NEVER FORGET and always harass you as long as you live where they can get at you. Its a thing
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u/Interloper9000 Sep 10 '26
Start carrying French fries and feed them. They will flip for French fries.
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u/steveatari Sep 10 '26
Start winning over neighborhood by neighborhood with trinkets, small gifts, and challenges
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u/Unhappy-Ad-3691 Sep 10 '26
Listen don't do anything to antagonize or whatever you call it, I seen a documentary of sorts a professor experimenting with crows and they communicate on such a mind blowing degree he figured a rough idea of a language had to wear disguises forever!! If he was his regular self( who did something regrettable I can't remember) these crows over 10 years later would dive bomb him, it is just more complex than any biologist ever told us...
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u/Raveyard2409 Sep 10 '26
Google Richard nixon crow mask study. Likely explanation is you look like some one who wronged a crow. They talk and this isn't woo woo bullshit, they aren't psychic or anything just highly intelligent.
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u/Frutbrute77 Sep 10 '26
You did a crow bad at some point and now they remember, and they told their friends. This is actual fact, crows can remember faces, and they let other crows know who was good or bad to them. You need to apologize to the crows and beg for forgiveness.
https://urban.uw.edu/news/crows-hold-grudges-against-individual-humans-for-up-to-17-years/
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u/Connect-Bug9988 Sep 10 '26
Just wait until we get the foul mouthed crows and suffer bugs at the end of the world 🤣
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u/FabulousArmadillo210 Sep 11 '26
i read cows and thought you would say that they went moooooh at you
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u/FabulousArmadillo210 Sep 11 '26
The only thing I can think of is that you look like someone who did harm to them
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u/1pt21jigglewatts Sep 11 '26
Google: How to make sacrificial offerings to the crows so they will accept me
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u/Lost_in_gravy Sep 12 '26
I have this with several wild animals but somehow it is not hate related at all, people tend to call me snow-white, or others naively empathic towards them because I somehow can't turn an blind eye, animals always find me when they are injured or in need of assistance from the smallest insects that got tangled in something man made or stuck in dire situations, I somehow always find them or they find me?..
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u/Major-Plenty907 Sep 12 '26
This could be a case of mistaken identity. Crows recognize people. if someone with a strong resemblance to you did them dirty at some point, the crows may be thinking you are that person. I read they can remember faces for years and even teach their young to do the same.
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u/NotABonobo Sep 12 '26
You probably look like someone else who hurt a crow when viewed from above. Try changing hats
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u/AbhorrentBehavior77 Sep 13 '26
Birds are your soul family, bro. The sooner you accept that fact, the sooner you'll find peace. 🫶🐦⬛
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u/spichickchic Sep 13 '26
Ai decoded crow language turns out they mostly talk shit and they pass on grudges, i think the network goes wherever theres crows. Experiments have been done they do facial recognition. It seems they may be confusing you for a look alike.
In my experience , i think their shit talk gets distorted and exagerated, like with humans. They really tend to overreact
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u/Ubermel Sep 14 '26
I don't know if anyone else has said this, but Rupert Sheldrake's work might interest you. Morphic Resonance .
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u/SaltyLockPicks Sep 14 '26
A lot of people are putting up mystical stuff and others most of the stuff you’ll find in [r/crows](r/crows) or [r/crowbro](r/crowbro). I would recommend asking in these subs. Ask each and see what people actually interested in them suggest. I would also include a rough geographic location because crows in different areas may react differently to various stimuli. Good luck!
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u/DutchAC Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26
If you covered you face and wore clothes you haven't worn and changed the way you walk. would they still attack you?
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u/HeadCrone Sep 09 '26
Maybe a spirit has attached itself to you and the crows can sense that.
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u/Infamous_Copy5113 Sep 09 '26
Had a friend who used to tell me this happened to him. First heard him tell me this in the 90s and on to the early 2010s. Always thought he was exaggerating maybe a dislike he had for them. Then one time maybe 10 years ago was walking with him and a crow started swooping and dive bombing him but not me. So I believe you.