Perched atop a cement pedestal in Minnesota’s Belgrade Centennial Memorial Park is a giant, ominous blackbird that currently holds the undisputed title of Largest Crow in the World. 

Created in 1988 to honor the state centennial, the big bird stands over 40 feet tall from the base of the structure to the top of the bird’s head. The giant metal and fiberglass crow itself is 18 feet tall and stands on a 30-foot replica twig, possibly symbolizing the animal’s unique ability to use tools.

A huge crow may seem a strange way to honor Minnesota, but there is a method to the madness, although it doesn’t have anything to do with any special population of the birds. The monument is located near the Crow River, which in turn feeds into Crow Lake, neither of which was named after the blackbirds either, but instead, they get their names from Sioux warrior, Chief Little Crow. Given the number of crow-named landmarks in the area, it just seemed like a natural fit.

The base beneath the crow’s concrete pedestal also holds a little museum where visitors can learn, not about crows, but about the celebration of the Minnesota centennial. For a landmark with such a large corvid, it sure doesn’t seem to want to crow about the bird itself very much.