Bizarre moment talking crow greets tourist with ‘Y’alright love’

If you thought animals only talked in children’s movies, think again. A chatty bird in England has been filmed greeting tourists with “Y’alright love?” in a thick Yorkshire accent.

Lisa Brooks says she caught the unlikely scene on video during a recent day trip to Knaresborough Castle, North Yorkshire with her husband Mark. The mother-of-two took out her phone to film the bizarre moment.

The 34-second clip shows the pied crow, which she initially confused for a magpie, fiddling with a twig before hopping onto a wall to greet the couple with the phrase “Y’alright love”. The next phrase uttered appears to be “I’m alright”, which is heard twice.

Brooks told British media: “I like videoing wildlife and had spent the morning video squirrels and other birds. I wandered over to the magpie and just heard this faint call of ‘y’alright love.”

“At first I thought it was Mark messing around but after a few minutes I realised it was the bird! I found it absolutely hilarious! It must be a local – it has a proper Yorkshire accent.”

She said the bird continued chatting for another 15 minutes, switching between “darling” and “love”. “I don’t think anyone has seen a talking magpie before – let alone one with a thick Yorkshire accent!” She added.

Luckily for us, Brooks uploaded the video to Facebook with the caption: “Never in my life have I seen a talking magpie.”

The hilarious video has since gone viral with one commentator, saying, “I just think it’s funny because it has a northern accent,” while another added, “They’re taking over”.

This isn’t the first bird to chat with tourists at Knaresborough Castle — in 2015, a raven named Izzie stole phones and cameras from castle visitors. Visitors have also apparently been sworn at by the bird – with the raven learning to say: “What you f****** looking at?” to mortified day-trippers, The Sun reported at the time. 

Birds are known to be clever mimics, and some members of the crow family are able to mimic human speech. Previous studies have found birds may be far more intelligent than initially believed — carrion crows in Japan place nuts in roadways, waiting for cars to crush the shells to eat them. 

What do you think? Did you know crows could mimic human speech?