What Are Corvids?

When Edgar Allen Poe had to find a bird annoying enough to drive a man insane, the choice was easy: a raven. Corvids—the avian family that includes ravens and crows—are notorious for causing mischief to humans and animals alike. They steal food, knock over trash cans, harass dogs, tailgate raptors, raid nests for eggs, and engage in all kinds of behaviors that have people wondering, “Why are these birds such jerks?”
Kaeli Swift, a corvid researcher and lecturer at the University of Washington, knows all about birds’ devious reputation. Of the behaviors she’s asked about most, her explanation usually boils down to, “they’re smart.”
Corvids are famous for their intelligence. Ravens can use tools to get food (and even use other crafty birds as tools), and plan ahead like apes and small children. Crows have demonstrated the ability to recognize individual human faces and harass people who have harmed them. In the process, both birds might come of looking a little … dickish.
Swift talked us through some of the rude corvid behavior she hears about most often, and explains why it happens.
Mobbing
Mobbing is perhaps the most noticeable of the bullying corvid behaviors. A hawk or owl will be hanging out in a tree, not bothering anyone, when a group of crows will come along and harass it—dive-bombing and screeching—until it’s forced to fly away. Jerks!
Swift says we should cut corvids a break on mobbing, though, given that lots of birds do it. “It’s simply a prey species responding to a predator,” she says. "We just notice it more with crows because they’re big and loud.” Even tiny birds like chickadees, titmice, and wrens are known to hound potential threats on the wing. And while the behavior can be seen all year round, corvids tend to get more wary and protective during the spring-to-summer breeding season.
But what about when crows harass a bird that isn’t a predator like a fish-eating osprey? In those instances, Swift says the birds may just be responding to a species that fits the general frame of a predator—a “better safe than sorry” approach, she calls it. Mobbing may also serve a social purpose: one corvid showing off to others that it can handle danger.

By- Abhishek Singh
Content - https://www.popsci.com/story/blogs/ask-us-anything/crow-raven-aggressive-behavior/