If you’re wondering just what, exactly, you’re watching, then yes, I can confirm, it’s a talking raven.

A. talking. raven.

As in, a bird (not a parrot)… impressively emulating a human voice (and doing his best Fozzy Bear impression, to boot).

Incredulous as I? Need further proof? Seems the web is rife with documentary evidence.

And as if that weren’t unsettling enough, it appears “Crows Never Forget Your Face.” [alt link]

Crows remember the faces of threatening humans and often react by scolding and bringing in others to mob the perceived miscreant, according to a new study… Since the mob members also then indirectly learn about the threatening person, the findings demonstrate how just a single crow’s bad experience with a particular human can spread information about this individual throughout entire crow communities. [Hitchcock’s The Birds, anyone?] Given that crows have impressive memories, people who ruffle the feathers of these birds could experience years of retribution…

Researchers donned masks while trapping and tagging a group of crows. “When the researchers later put on other masks while traveling to different areas, crows that were never captured immediately recognized the ‘dangerous face,’ [and] joined in the scolding and mobbing, which could occur over a mile away from the original incident” [emphasis added].

Great! So they can use tools, their relatives can closely imitate our own voices, and now it seems they not only remember individuals against whom they hold a grudge, but convey that knowledge to other members of their “mob?”

Or should that be “murder?”

[muahahahaha…]