"Mommy! Mommy! Look what my crow friends gave me today!"
These words could actually be uttered by 8-year-old Gabi Mann of Seattle, Washington. Gabi shares food with neighborhood crows every day and in return, they bring her presents.
These small gifts have become Gabi's most treasured possessions. She keeps them carefully organized in a box with labeled plastic bags, with meticulous records of where and when she received the gift from one of her flying friends.
"Black table by feeder. 2:30 p.m. 09 Nov 2014," reads a note on one plastic bag. Most of the gifts are simple objects, things that most people would discard such as pieces of polished glass, buttons, Legos, beads, zippers, earrings and paperclips. Gabi, however, treasures each gift.
After all, not every child can say their bird friends bring them presents. Probably just Gabi and Snow White.
The unusual bond grew unintentionally. At age four, Gabi was prone to drop food by accident. Noticing that birds would come and gobble up the food she let fall to the ground, she began intentionally dropping pieces of her school lunches as she got a bit older. Her brother joined in as well.
Of course, the crows took notice too and began to expect Gabi when she would go and come from school.
"I like that they love the animals and are willing to share," Gabi's mom Lisa said as she explained that she doesn't have a problem with her children sharing their lunches. Since 2013, Lisa has worked with her daughter to share food specifically intended for the crows.
The crows' gifts started to show up after this routine began. Gabi joked that once she received a small piece of metal that had the word "best" printed on it, laughing she said, "I don't know if they still have the part that says 'friend'"
But is it just coincidence that the birds started leaving gifts in return? Perhaps the objects were never intended for Gabi at all.
Maybe, but at least one wildlife expert seems to think it is possible to form bonds with crows.
"If you want to form a bond with a crow, be consistent in rewarding them," said John Marzluff, professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington.
"There's definitely a two-way communication going on there. ... They understand each other's signals."
Regardless of what we think, both Gabi and Lisa are convinced that they have formed a serious bond with the crows. Lisa enjoys photographing the birds and recounted a time where she recently lost her lens cap in an alleyway near their home. Believe it or not, Gabi's bird friends made sure it wasn't lost for good.
In the video footage Lisa has of their bird feeder, the crow can be seen not only returning the lens cap but also washing it before dropping it off.
"You can see it bringing it into the yard. Walks it to the birdbath and actually spends time rinsing this lens cap. I'm sure that it was intentional. They watch us all the time. I'm sure they knew I dropped it. I'm sure they decided they wanted to return it."
We nominate this 8-year-old for best collection. The rocks and toy cars we collected as kids don't seem quite as cool anymore.