Hi, I'm Jason Mark from Curious City, and I don't know about you, but it's hard to believe that it's actually already officially spring.

And as we emerge from our winter hibernation, it's awesome to see birds and other wildlife returning to our neighborhoods and favorite parks.

Curious City listener Phoebe Murtaugh recommends keeping an eye out for crows.

There's a crow.

It just kind of ghosted in on silent wings and is perched on top of a lamp post, kind of

checking out the surrounds.

They usually like to sit at the very tops of one of these big trees. I think they

just like keeping an eye on things. So shiny. Some see these large black birds as harbingers of

doom, but others consider them good luck. For Phoebe, it's all about their charisma.

I've found them curious since I learned that they can use tools and recognize faces.

And clever animals are always kind of the most interesting because you end up wondering what they're thinking about.

Phoebe grew up in the Pullman neighborhood and has always loved Chicago's parks.

But she's known as to change

in the crow population in recent years.

I grew up in Chicago, and I don't remember seeing crows when I was little.

I feel like in the past five, ten years, I see them a lot more than I can ever recall

seeing them, you know, so it got me wondering, like, is this

part of our changing our environment? We hear good things about, like, more frogs and more

butterflies and improving local conditions, but I know so little about crows. Turns out the

crow population in Chicago has gone through a drastic change in her lifetime, though not quite the way Phoebe's observed them.

You see, in the year 2000, the state's crow population was at an all-time high, and just three years later, half of those crows were dead. Half. And their population hasn't

fully bounced back. And I know what you might be thinking, but humans aren't actually

...