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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteSome New Caledonian crows can solve parts of Aesop-style water-displacement puzzles: they choose objects that raise a floating reward within reach under several tested conditions. But they have also failed other versions, and their choices can be shaped by prior preferences and reward history, so success does not by itself prove an untrained grasp of the underlying physics.
The clearest answer is conditional: crows show meaningful but bounded problem-solving ability, and the result depends on the particular bird, training, and puzzle design.
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How does the crow water-displacement puzzle work?
A floating food reward is placed in a tube where the bird cannot reach it. The crow can drop objects into the water to raise the reward. Researchers vary the objects and apparatus to test which features guide the bird’s choices.
What did New Caledonian crows do in the tests?
In a six-experiment study published in PLOS ONE in 2014, Jelbert and colleagues tested six wild-caught New Caledonian crows. The birds preferred a water-filled tube to a sand-filled one, sinking objects to floating ones, solid objects to hollow ones, and a tube with a higher starting water level to one with a lower level.
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In the tested sinking-versus-floating and solid-versus-hollow object-choice conditions, the birds chose correctly almost 90% of the time, according to Jelbert et al. (2014). That figure applies only to those conditions and this study; it is not a general success rate for crows or for every puzzle.
The crows did not respond appropriately to functional differences in tube width and failed a more difficult U-tube condition involving a hidden connection between the outer tube and the central tube containing the reward. The authors summarized the limits this way: “The NC crows we tested here could not respond appropriately to functional differences in the volume of tubes, nor could they infer the presence of a hidden connection in the U-tube apparatus” (Jelbert et al., 2014).
Why does success not prove that a crow understands the physics?
A 2016 PLOS ONE follow-up found that preferences and reward history affected New Caledonian crows’ choices. At first, the birds chose objects made rewarding during prior training even when those objects would not work in the water task. They learned to choose functional objects over repeated trials, but later favored previously rewarded floating objects over novel sinking objects that would work in the standard setup.
These findings mean that successful choices may reflect a mix of functional cues, learning, and object preferences. A crow’s performance is evidence of problem solving in that task, but success alone does not establish that the bird understood water displacement in advance.
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How do training and puzzle design affect results?
Training matters. A 2023 Nature Communications study of American crows describes incremental training on an Aesop-style task, gradually requiring birds to retrieve and drop stones to raise a reward. That study concerns a different species and experiment, but it illustrates why a report should say whether a bird was trained before describing its performance as spontaneous.
Apparatus design matters, too. The 2014 research team discussed limits of its U-tube setup, including visibility, tube spacing, and the use of arbitrary colored cues. A 2014 follow-up found that modifications to the paradigm changed New Caledonian crow performance and that a non-human animal could solve a version of the U-tube task. Results should therefore be described for the specific apparatus and protocol—not as a universal limit on what crows can do.
How should you evaluate a crow puzzle-solving claim?
- Identify the task: Is it a water-displacement puzzle, a different tool task, or a demonstration with another setup?
- Check the functional challenge: Which object or apparatus features actually affect whether the reward can be reached?
- Look for training and reward history: Was the bird trained, and could a learned preference explain its choice?
- Check the limits and comparison: Did the bird succeed across altered conditions, and are claims kept specific to the species, sample, and protocol?
Are crows as intelligent as young children?
The 2014 authors said the overall performance pattern rivalled that of children aged 5–7 on particular tasks. That is not evidence that crows are as intelligent as children generally. As the 2016 paper notes, direct comparisons can be complicated by differences in methods and trial counts.
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Can crows solve water-displacement puzzles?
Some New Caledonian crows used functional cues in tested versions, including whether objects sank and were solid. They failed other conditions, so the answer depends on the task and setup.
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No. A 2016 follow-up found that prior object preferences and reward history influenced choices. Success is evidence of performance, but it does not alone establish an untrained understanding of the physics.
What does “almost 90%” refer to?
Jelbert et al. (2014) reported almost 90% correct choices in the tested sinking-versus-floating and solid-versus-hollow conditions. It is not a general rate for all crows or puzzle types.
Do all crow species solve the same puzzles?
No such conclusion follows from these studies. The 2014 and 2016 water-displacement findings concern New Caledonian crows; the 2023 training example concerns American crows. Species and study protocols should not be treated as interchangeable.
The bottom line
New Caledonian crows can solve some water-displacement challenges, but their performance is mixed across conditions and influenced by learning and preferences. The evidence supports specific, bounded abilities—not the claim that every crow spontaneously understands every elaborate puzzle.
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