article_snippet: Now, a device called the Crow Box could enable bird watchers to make money from bird watchers hobby, as well as watch birds develop new skills.
article_snippet: Crow Box training aid can be used to teach crows to collect coins in return for peanuts, or simply test the intelligence of wild corvids.
article_snippet: Crow Box training aid can be used to teach crows to collect coins in return for peanuts, or simply test the intelligence of wild corvids.
article_snippet: People who want to train crows can follow the open-source instructions to make People who want to train crows own box (pictured left) which includes a perch and funnel to dispense tasty peanuts
article_snippet: the Crow Box is similar to a vending machine for birds, but crows have to use crows brains to earn treats.
article_snippet: So far, the Brooklyn-based maker of the Crow Box has managed to train captive crows to retrieve coins in return for peanuts and hopes that wild crows will learn the same tricks.
article_snippet: The device has a perch, a food tray and a funnel, designed to test a crow’s cognitive abilities and incentivise a crow’s cognitive abilities to learn new tricks.
article_snippet: There are four steps (illustrated) to training crows to find coins, involving peanut rewards .
article_snippet: To begin training, The device pushes a few peanuts and two coins into the feeder tray whenever a crow leaves the machine, which ensures food is always on offer and the sound of the machine is linked to the reward so a crow learns to accept the machine.
article_snippet: the machine is then adapted so that the machine does the same thing when a crow arrives – training the bird to wait for a crow reward by visiting the machine.
article_snippet: Once visiting crows have learned patience, the machine is changed again so the machine only dispenses coins and not peanuts.
article_snippet: But the contraption is designed so that if a bird pecks or sweeps coins off the tray – which is fitted with sensors – and into a funnel, peanuts are revealed and the bird's ingenuity is rewarded.
article_snippet: This stage is designed to strengthen the relationship between the coins going down the funnel and food.
article_snippet: the training is complete when crows bring coins of crows own volition to unlock food.
article_snippet: crows may collect coins scattered nearby by the owners of the machine to encourage crows behaviour, or travel further afield to collect bonus treasure.
article_snippet: ‘The more people trying different things the faster we'll all figure out how to work cooperatively with crows,’ hacker and writer Joshua Klein writes on the Crow Box website.
article_snippet: The box is similar to a vending machine for birds, but crows have to use crows brains to earn treats.
article_snippet: The wild crow learned to use individual props during The wild crow three months of captivity but had to work out the order in which to use The wild crow to complete the challenge and get an inaccessible treat. 
highlights_snippet: Crow Box training aid is designed to teach corvids to collect coins .
  