Story · Adam · 2026-10-07
Adam and the crow who says good morning
A crow frightened Adam once. Now she comes every morning to say hello — and teaches him more than he teaches her.
The fright
Adam used to hunt animals; now he hunts frames. One misty morning by the Paupys ponds he was aiming his long lens at a beaver when a crow landed right behind him and cawed. Adam jumped, the beaver was gone, and the crow looked at him as if he were the clumsiest hunter in the country.
He left her a piece of his sandwich on a stone and walked away. That was the beginning of a friendship.
Every morning
The next morning the crow was waiting on the same branch. A week later she landed on his fence as soon as he opened the door and loudly said hello. He called her the Queen and started leaving her a treat every morning — a nut, a crust, a piece of cheese.
After a month she came when he whistled. Then he started teaching her small commands: a short whistle for “come”, a tap on the fence post for “wait”. She learned faster than his old hunting dog ever did.
What crows know
Crows are among the cleverest birds on Earth. They live for many years, they remember human faces and they seem to pass information to one another — which person is a friend, which one is dangerous — almost like stories. Soon the other crows near Adam’s house stopped cawing at him.
Adam told the young photographers he teaches: AI can gather knowledge like this and learn from the way animals behave — and maybe one day help us invent new ways of communicating.
The episode
Adam turned his crow photos into a short story video narrated by an AI voice. The Queen, of course, did not ask for a fee. She asked for a nut.
Tools in this episode
Some links are partner links — see our disclosure.
- Fliki — What it can do: Turns text into videos with AI voices. Why it helps: it does in minutes what used to take a studio or a freelancer. Price: €24 per user per month (Standard, monthly billing, no commitment) (source, checked 2026-10-04) How it pays back: It pays for itself in a month if it replaces work you would otherwise pay more than the plan price for.
What should Adam try tomorrow?
Send your idea to [email protected] — the best ideas become the next episodes.
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