Where we live, crows and ravens use nearly 2,000 miles of inland shoreline as a feeding ground. They dig clams at low tide and use the roadways and traffic to crush the mollusks. The birds dare to take from others what they need and will team up against the larger animals. Gulls, oystercatchers, eagles, otters, and seals are all able to catch and open up what the crows cannot, so crows apply their brains against the others’ brawn with amazing results. As one appears to move with indifference toward the feeding animal, another crow pulls the feeder’s tail. The feeder drops its meal, which the pair of crows seizes and shares. Sharing your own yard with a family of crows is nonstop excitement. If you discover a nest, you can observe all sorts of cooperative enterprise that corvids—which include crows, ravens, jays, magpies, and Clark’s nutcrackers—employ. There may be helpers, offspring from previous years raised by the pair of breeding birds, that contribute to the raising...