Britta Teckentrup writes an ode to the family of the crow birds – culture

Britta Teckentrup’s picture books and non-fiction books are characterized by their very own, unmistakable visual language, a mixed technique of “handmade and digital collage”, as she once described in an interview. In this way, she succeeds in creating luminous pictures with figures of astonishing expressiveness up to atmospheric, poetic pictures that are seldom found in non-fiction books.

Her new book pays homage to ravens and crows, whom she describes as her favorite birds in her foreword “Ode to the Crow”. “Everyone I have told about this book project has had their own experience with crows and ravens. And now I want to share with you my enthusiasm for these unique and often misunderstood birds in this book.”

“Corvids are the most highly developed species of bird life.”

The result is an impressive book about ravens and crows, and if we get involved with it, we will be richer by a lot of information about this family of birds and have got to know all kinds of corvids in over 60 wonderful pictures and learned that “ravens and crows are the largest Species within the order of passerines count. The genus Corvus comprises 45 subspecies, most of which are black. “

In her chapter “The clever raven” Britta Teckentrup tells of the amazing learning ability of this bird species, which plan actions in advance. “Corvids are the most highly developed species of bird life.” In cities, for example, it is observed again and again how ravens and crows use cars to crack hard nuts. When the traffic light turns red, they put walnuts on the intersection and wait for the green phase when the cars drive over the nuts and crush them. During the next red phase, they collect them again, cut up in a beak-friendly manner.

The complex social behavior is also discussed, and we learn that crows recognize and welcome their family members who have left the flock for a long time when they return. And that dying corvids are often “guarded” by a bird, and the flock gathers on a tree to say goodbye together.

In addition to this factual information, there is also a chapter “Ravens and Crows in Literature”, where we not only have fables and fairy tales, such as the well-known fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm: “The Seven Ravens”, as well as poems such as “Hans Huckebein, the unlucky raven” by Wilhelm Busch or Edgar Allan Poe’s famous, eerie poem “Der Rabe” can be found.

At the very end, as an alternative, Britta Teckentrup brings a picture with a reference to Hitchcock’s famous film “The Birds”, in which he – unlike Teckentrup – portrayed the crows as “symbols of evil and bringers of death”. (For all)