A few years back, Melinda Green began noticing crows would occasionally drop by for a rest on her fire escape in San Francisco.
Rather than shoo the birds away, as some people might, Green decided to welcome them.
“I just started putting out some food on my fire escape when I'd see them,” Green told The Dodo.
Simplywatching the crows was reward enough for Green — but apparently, the birds decided she deserved something more.
It was a piece of crumpled-up foil from the top of a champagne bottle — one man's litter, yes, but apparently a shiny treasure in the eyes of the crow.
He’d brought it, so it would seem, as a gift for Green. And she was delighted to accept it.
“I was thrilled, of course,” Green said.
Green admits to being somewhat skeptical at first that the foil was actually meant for her.
But then the gifts just kept on coming.
In time, the crows brought her various items — like colorful rocks, bones, nuts from shells. Once, they even brought her a gummy bear.
Green chose not to eat it, but she appreciated the gesture regardless.
The crows’ most recent gift to Green is a somewhat mysterious object.
Though probably just a broken-off piece of machinery, it does have an artful quality the birds must have thought Green would like.
And she did.
“The fact that it really is a gift makes it precious,” Green said.
One day, a crow arrived to Green’s fire escape with an object in his mouth and placed it where she could reach it.