I was going to say "well if we can't even teach smokers". But then again...

So other species now have to work to clean up the dirty habits of humans? This will just give these dirtbag smokers an excuse to flick their butts into the street instead of binning them. The better solution is to simply ban smoking, give smokers 2 years to kick the habit and then make it illegal.

A great idea ! The issue is to teach the crows. If some are teached, they will surely show it to other crows.

Crows are smart. They'll start snatching cigarettes directly from smokers hands... it could be quite fun.

@Spod,
Banning cigarettes would just drive smoking underground. Prohibition showed that by banning something the people want, you hand over the production and distribution to criminals. And if you think that factory made cigarettes contain nasty compounds, imagine what criminally produced ones would be cut with... In the UK, unscrupulous shopkeepers already stock counterfeit cigarettes, due to the fact that they are extremely heavily taxed here- and need to be- as our health service is free at the point of delivery, and smoking causes many health issues.
More generally, my concern about using birds to pick up butts is that they contain the filter element- ie they contain more nasty carcinogens than the actual cigarette smoke. So for birds to handle them in their beaks, then immediately afterwards ingesting food through their beaks, could expose them to all sorts of nasties.

@bergamot69 perhaps not ban, but make it illegal to smoke in a public space, including streets, countryside etc. So no criminal opportunity.

I noticed out west a few years ago that ravens would come and clean all the bugs off the front of my car.

This article sure brings out the Antismoking-Nazis. The funny thing is that it is pure conditioning. See somthing about smoking --> hate builds up --> gotta do something --> make a hateful post to relieve the "pressure" --> feel a little bit better for "acting". Positive feedback. More such activity in the future. The crows are smarter. At least they get food.

Careless smokers have caused more death and destruction on this planet than Hitler, Papa Doc and Idi Amin combined. Why not find a way to shame them into cleaning up after themselves?

Yeah, you have a much better chance of training the crows to pick up the butts than you do training smokers not to toss them in the first place. It's bad enough they don't respect their own bodies. They don't respect the environment or their fellow man.