I spent several years on a ranch that had two large ravens. Absolutely brilliant birds.
There were a few in the German village I lived at that everyone recognized. It was fun watching them. They would collect chest nuts and fly way up and drop them on the road. They would check if they cracked from the drop or would wait until a car drove over them and cracked them. They had different calls for the different people who would feed them. And once, a wayward one came in toe the neighborhood an one of them pecked the other one to death. Now I live where there are magpies but my bird dogs keep them at bay.
Of course they are brilliant. For birds. Rats are smart too. It’s a scavanger thing.
When I was a kid, a woman I don’t think I ever met, but heard about a lot (by a single name, like Cher) nursed an injured young crow back to health and taught it to talk. Good talker.