Birds not so dumb

In Japan, carrion crows and humans line up patiently, waiting for the traffic to halt.

When the cars stop, the birds hop into the street and place walnuts on the road. After the lights turn green again, the birds fly away and wait for vehicles to drive over the nuts, cracking them open. Finally, when it’s time to cross again, the crows join the pedestrians and pick up their meal.

If the cars miss the nuts, the birds often hop back and put them somewhere else on the road. Or they sit on electricity wires and drop them in front of vehicles. The crows in Japan have only been cracking nuts this way since about 1990. They have since been seen doing it in California.