Ed likes shiny objects. Nothing delights him more than a toothpaste box filled with rattley things that he can roll around and play with for days before tearing open.

Ebeneezer gets a very severe look on her face when she is displeased.

“If she could purse her lips she would,” Elena Fox said.

But Ebeneezer doesn’t have lips and Ed has no need for toothpaste. They are crows, sentenced to a life in captivity because they had too much contact with humans at an early age.

Ed (not his original name) is around 7 years old. Ebeneezer is probably 3 or 4. Both live in a large, well-appointed aviary in Fox’s backyard on Bainbridge Island. It’s a nice cage, roomy and filled with toys, but it’s still a cage. The crows no longer have the ability to fly freely with birds of their own feather.

Fox became the crows’ guardian when they came to the West Sound Wildlife Shelter, where she works as a volunteer wildlife rehabilitator.

Ed had been raised as a pet and was brought into the shelter in 2001 with a broken leg. Under the International Migratory Bird Treaty Act it is illegal to own a crow, but Fox said many people do because the birds are so personable. Crows are known to be intelligent, curious and mischievous.

The owner had to surrender Ed (short for “Possible Education Bird”) but he could not be returned to the wild because he had “imprinted” with humans.

As Fox explained, “he doesn’t know he’s a crow.” He had learned to speakqw — although Fox said you can’t really “teach” a crow to talk, they have to choose to do so — and had become very attached to humans. He had no recognition of crows as being his kind because he was taken from them when he was very young.

Ebeneezer was also a pet, and was brought to the shelter with an injured wing. Fox noted that it is illegal for veterinarians to treat a crow unless they have a permit to do so. Few do, so the birds end up at the Wildlife Shelter.

Ebeneezer had been “habituated” to live with people, which means she was old enough to already identify herself as a crow before she was taken as a pet.

“Habituated crows are friendly — they like to hang out with people,” Fox said. “They know they are crows, but they have included people in their world.” But, habituated crows are not predictable and can be dangerous, she added.

Fox became the keeper of the crows when the Shelter couldn’t find a suitable place for Ed. He couldn’t go into a program where crows are used to educate people about the downside of keeping pet crows because he was afraid of other crows. The other options, under the law, were to release him or have him euthanized. Not really options at all.

“I wasn’t even a bird person,” Fox said, but she became one, and went through a 10-month application process to legally be able to keep the bird. After completing all the requirements she was able to start her own education program and now gives 12 or more seminars a year with the crows.

Fox will present her “Caw of the Wild” education seminar at Stillwaters Environmental Center in Kingston on Sept. 6.

Fox brings both crows to the seminars, but she doesn’t let them out of their carriers; they are not there to perform, although she said “they love the programs. They’re little showboats.”

She said they also feel safer in the cages and it puts a fine point on her message: “They have to live in a cage because someone loved them.”

She also instructs participants on when to help a crow and when to leave it alone, and how to help when it is appropriate.

Through Ed and Ebeneezer, Fox is able to share the fascinating world of wild crows.

“I want people to know and care about crows; to know how rich and fascinating their lives are, and how limited their lives are in captivity.”

Fox estimates she will be caring for her crow charges for upwards of 30 years. Long past the time most people would have grown tired of them as pets.

To learn more about Ed and Ebeneezer and crows in the wild, the talk at Stillwaters is 4 p.m. Sept. 6. Costs is $10 per person or $25 per family. To register, contact Joleen Palmer at (360) 297-2876 or e-mail joleen@stillwatersenvironmentalcenter.org.

To learn more about the West Sound Wildlife Shelter visit www.westsoundwildlife.org.

Elena Fox recommends these books to learn more about crows and ravens:

“Mind of the Raven,” Bernd Heinrich

“Ravens in Winter,” Bernd Heinrich

“In the Company of Crows and Ravens,” John Marzluff and Tony Angell

“Ravens, Crows, Magpies and Jays,” Tony Angell

“The American Crow and the Common Raven,” Lawrence Kilham

“Bird Brains, the Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies and Jays,” Candice Savage

“Crows, Encounters with the Wise Guys,” Candice Savage

And for children:

“Martha,” Gennady Spirin

“Merry Christmas, Merry Crow,” Kathi Appelt