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Crows to Push for Gibbs Again

Written By Sunday, May 15, 2022 Add Comment Edit

Note: Most of these answers pertain to the American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos . Much of the information here is from my ain research on crows in central New York; where I used other sources I have tried to reference the material. - Dr. Kevin J. McGowan, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

  • What is the connexion of crows and West Nile virus?

Bones biology

  • Do crows collect shiny objects?
  • How long practice crows live?
  • Do the male and female person crow mate for life?
  • Why do crows congregate in large numbers to sleep?
  • Why have these roosts recently moved into cities?
  • Practise crows migrate?
  • How many broods of immature can a crow family produce in ane year?
  • Do crows cast pellets similar hawks and owls?
  • Do male crows ever incubate?
  • I saw crows fighting and it looked like one was going to impale the other. Why would they do that?
  • Are crows ever white or have white in the wings?

Identification

  • What is the difference betwixt a crow and a raven?
  • How do you tell a Fish Crow from an American Crow?

Bad crow behavior

  • We have a pair of crows in our lawn that utilise our bird bath as a depository for all of the carcasses they observe. At that place are various snakes and rodents in the bathroom right now. It is disgusting. Why practise they do that?
  • My 10 year old son keeps having crows trying to attack him. He will be out in the thousand and they come swooping downwardly on his head. H due east has done zilch to them and he is terrified to become out side lonely now. I have been out there and they have not bothered me. Please tell me what I can do.
  • Since the crows came we don't have any little birds around anymore.
  • We've got crows hanging out in our chiliad. How can we get rid of these pests?
  • We take a pair of crows trigger-happy our windshield wiper blades off our vehicles. We accept no explanation for this activity or how to terminate information technology. Can you offer some communication or comments on the behavior?

People and crows

  • What mythologies are associated with crows?
  • What is a group of crows called (equally in "a gaggle of geese")?
  • Can crows be shot legally?
  • Do crows taste bad? Is that where "to eat crow" comes from?

Other things I haven't answered completely withal

  • What do crows consume?
  • Why do crows assemble in flocks during the day?
  • How smart are crows?
  • Are crows getting bigger?
  • Are crow populations increasing?
  • How tin you tell a male crow from a female?
  • How many different calls practice crows brand?
  • Why do crows hate owls?
  • Do crows play?
  • Do crows make skillful pets?

Why practise crows congregate in large numbers to sleep?

1 of the great animate being phenomena of the world is the congregation of big numbers of birds into a single group to slumber together. Such communal sleeping groups are known equally "roosts." Many species roost in groups; such things equally crows, robins, starlings, blackbirds, swallows, and herons. Well-nigh exercise this but outside of the breeding season. Some species, like starlings, as well forage together in great numbers. Others, such as herons, disperse out from these gathering areas to forage singly. For crows, roosts are primarily a fall and winter thing. Numbers peak in winter and and then decrease almost the beginning of the breeding flavor (usually in March). It appears that all crows will bring together winter roosts, even territorial breeding crows. Nigh breeding crows sleep on their territories during the breeding season, merely join the roosts after.

For an interesting account of a big urban roost in primal New York (pictured in a higher place), check out the website dedicated to the roost in Auburn, NY <http://com-site.com/savethecrows/>.

Just why birds congregate in such large groups is still largely a affair of conjecture. A number of hypotheses take been constructed to explicate information technology:

  • Ane is that the birds just are congregating in the most favorable spot (protection from predators, protection from the elements, the only trees suitable for roosting, etc.), and they don't mind doing it with a agglomeration of other birds. This thought is kind of analogous to a crowded hotel: everyone has the aforementioned needs being met at the same place, simply no one is really interacting with anyone else.
  • Another idea is that the birds get some protection from predators by beingness in a large grouping. This is the "wagontrain" analogy: safety in numbers. Crows are most afraid of large owls, and sleeping with a agglomeration of other crows could afford some protection for an individual crow.
  • Another thought is the information center hypothesis, where data near profitable foraging areas is transmitted. The thought is that an individual that did poorly foraging for itself on one 24-hour interval can watch for other individuals coming in to the roost that expect fatty and happy, that plain found some rich source of food. And so the hungry individual tin can either backtrack the happy ones' flying paths, or follow them out first matter in the morning time to the skillful food source.
  • Another food related idea is the patch-sitting hypothesis. This theory is similar to the first one mentioned, in that roosts congregate around a large, non-defendable, reliable food source. And so, first thing and final thing in the mean solar day, food is bachelor. It need not exist the best food, only it is something to consume to become them going. The birds can then disperse out and practise whatsoever they need to practise, having had some kind of breakfast starting time. Roosts, then, volition form in suitable roosting habitat almost these large nutrient sources. For crows, such arable sources might be landfills, commercial composting facilities, or sure types of agricultural fields.

Crows accept been congregating in large roosts in the autumn and winter for as long every bit there take been crows. Crow roosts can range from small scattered roosts of under i hundred individuals to the spectacularly large roosts of hundreds of thousands, or even more than a million crows! A roost in Fort Cobb, Oklahoma was estimated to hold over 2 million crows (Gerald Iams, 1972, State of Oklahoma Upland Game Inventory W-82-R-10). Most roosts are much smaller, merely roosts of tens of thousands are common.

Before heading to roost, crows volition congregate in some surface area abroad from the final roosting site, usually an hour or two before consummate darkness. Here the crows spend a lot of time calling, chasing, and fighting. Correct at dark the main body of the group will move toward the final roosting spot. Sometimes this final movement is relatively quiet, simply unremarkably it is still quite noisy. I have seen crows coming together from several carve up congregation areas, heading to one concluding staging expanse where they all coagulate, then everyone heads to the terminal roost. The final roost can be a cohesive group in a unmarried woodlot, or it can be rather diffusely spread out over quite a broad surface area of suitable trees.

Many, perhaps most, people who witness large roosts or the flight lines to them are reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds." I think this association is unfortunate. It makes the allusion that somehow what we are watching is sinister, unnatural, and threatening. In fact, it is none of the above, but one of the most natural things in the globe. I would prefer to supercede this association with the thought that such roosts are something to be marveled at. To me they always bring upwards the idea of Passenger Pigeons. When Europeans first came to North America, the Rider Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was the most abundant bird on earth. Migrating flocks were said to darken the heaven for hours as they passed. Despite their incredible abundance, they are completely gone now, driven extinct past the early years of the 20th century. A combination of habitat destruction (the consummate devastation of the eastern hardwood forests) and hunting for sale as meat in commercial markets destroyed one of the greatest natural spectacles on globe. Not a single Passenger Pigeon remains on earth today, nor practise any people that remember seeing their massive flocks. I would like for people to look at the large congregations of the similarly-sized American Crows going to roost and think that, despite how impressive they might be, they are but the slightest hint of what the Rider Dove flocks must take been like.

Why have these roosts recently moved into cities?

A number of possible explanations exist for the relatively recent influx of roosting crows into urban areas. The birds are not making desperate shifts in behavior; crows have been gathering into winter roosts for as long as there have been crows. We know, for example, from piece of work done in the 1930's by John Emlen at Cornell University that approximately 25,000 crows were gathering in a roost almost Auburn, NY in the wintertime of 1932-33, and that a large roost was present in 1911-12 (Emlen, J. T., Jr., 1938, Midwinter distribution of the American Crow in New York State, Ecology xix: 264-275). The big difference is that they were roosting three miles due south of town then and are roosting smack in downtown Auburn today. Any increase in size of the roost would be ephemeral, compared to the alter of locale.

A couple of things may have worked together to get crows into town (both for nesting and roosting):

ane) The 1972 extension of the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Human action of 1918 to comprehend crows. At this point the hunting of crows became regulated. No longer could anyone anywhere take shots at crows, but had to do and so (theoretically) within proscribed guidelines and hunting seasons. It is possible that this change may have resulted in the decrease of shooting force per unit area on crows, allowing them to become more tolerant of the presence of people.

ii) A prohibition on the discharge of firearms inside city/village limits. It is conceivable that crows somehow stumbled across the fact that they could not be shot in cities because of local ordinances against shooting in town. So, in fact crows might have somehow figured out that the best thing to do to live with their enemy was to become as shut as possible, not stay away. Many crow hunters exercise most of their hunting along flying lines of crows moving to roost. These flight lines through urban areas are protected, those in rural areas are not.

Once crows overcame the urban bulwark, a number of possible advantages could extend to them:

a) Cities are warmer than rural areas. In nearly places a deviation of 5-10 degrees F exists, sometimes referred to as a "heat bubble" over cities. Because roosting is a winter phenomenon, warmer spots could be important.

b) Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) populations should be lower in urban areas. Next to people with guns, Neat Horned Owls pose the largest danger to an developed crow. Great Horned Owls take adults as well as nestling crows with great regularity. (That is why crows hate them so much!) Owls probably are regular attendants at crow roosts, as owls wake up equally the crows are heading into the roosts, and sleeping crows should be pretty easy picking.

c) Artificial calorie-free help crows in watching for owls. I have noticed that many urban crow roosts are not located in squeamish dumbo trees where the crows would have microclimate advantages, such as protection from current of air or cold. Rather, the crows perch out on the tips of blank branches of leafless deciduous trees. I was quite surprised by this at first, but and then I noticed that many (almost?) roosts are located virtually sources of bright illumination, such as streetlights and parking lot lights, similar the lights at the Auburn prison house and Syracuse University. It makes sense for crows to similar "nightlights" to protect them from their biggest apparition, the Great Horned Owl. Crows don't see well at night; owls practice. Crows near street light could run into approaching owls. Also, if a crow gets scared out of its roost in the middle of the night (presumably by an owl taking crows), in lighted urban areas the crows can see where the predator is, and perhaps more importantly, tin can see to find another perch. You can imagine that flying blindly into the dark is not something whatsoever bird would cull to do. I was surprised at the corporeality of activeness at the Auburn roost well after dark. The crows were notwithstanding making a lot of dissonance and even flying from tree to tree. In other roosts I have watched that were in darker locations the crows quieted down rather rapidly and no movements betwixt copse were seen shortly after complete darkness.

d) Urban areas provide big trees for roosts. In many places some of the largest trees to be plant are in urban areas. Many copse in parks and cemeteries were protected from the severe logging of the end of the last century, and are some of the oldest trees around. These large trees may be especially attractive to crows.

Do crows migrate?

American Crows can be considered partially migratory. That is, some populations migrate, others are resident, and in others but some of the crows migrate. Crows in the southern parts of their range appear to exist resident and not migrate. They may make some changes in their use of space at this time, spending more fourth dimension off the territory to forage and roost. Crows migrate out of the northern nigh parts of their range. It has been stated that crows migrate out of those areas where the minimum January temperature averages 0 � F. Certainly crows leave the northern Great Plains in the fall, leaving Saskatchewan and Alberta to winter in the lower Plains states of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma (Kalmbach, E. R., and S. E. Aldous. 1940. Winter banding of Oklahoma crows. Wilson Balderdash. 52: 198-206). Crows tin can be seen crossing the Swell Lakes in spring and fall, and these birds undoubtedly are migrating to and from parts of Canada.

Crows breeding in upstate New York are partially migratory. Breeding birds, and about of the tagged individuals in my written report, announced to remain all winter. The breeding pair appears to visit their breeding territory every day of the year, although they volition roost and fodder in other places. Non-breeders may spend significant periods on the home territory, or may spend time away. Many individuals wander around the local area joining unlike foraging flocks on subsequent days. They may or may not visit the habitation territory during this time. Other non-breeders leave the area entirely for several months. Several of the birds I have tagged in Ithaca, NY have been recovered (shot) or seen in Pennsylvania during the winter. One individual (less than one yr old) was seen at a compost pile in northern Pennsylvania with a flock of crows, and three weeks after it was dorsum in Ithaca with its parents who were starting nesting. Information technology helped the parents raise young that yr, and remained in the area over subsequent winters.

How many broods of immature can a crow family produce in one twelvemonth?

In general, American Crows have only i successful brood a year. Figure it like this: information technology takes from one to two weeks to build a nest (always a new i with each nesting endeavor), vi days to lays eggs (ii-6 eggs, average of 4.vii in my study), 19 days of incubation (begun with the penultimate, or antepenultimate egg, i.e., adjacent-to-terminal or adjacent-to-adjacent-to-terminal egg, depending on clutch size), 35 days in the nest earlier fledging (xxx-45), and and then six weeks to 2 months to feed the immature to independence. That adds up to nearly 4 months from first to finish. Even though American Crows are one of the primeval nesting species in New York (laying eggs the last week of March), they cannot hope to pull off two broods a yr. In my study population if a nest fails after the showtime week or 2 of May, the pair does non endeavor to renest in most years. On occasion in some years some pairs will renest rather late after a latest failure. The latest young I have banded hatched vii June.

Nest success is 50% (average in my written report) or less (other studies), and rarely do successful crows raise all the young from all the eggs they lay. On average in my written report, rural nests produce iv young per successful nest and urban nests produce 3. Average clutch size in both areas is 4.7.

How long do crows live?

Most crows don't even live a year, having died in the egg or as nestlings. In my study population of American Crows in Ithaca, New York, but about half of the nests succeed in producing young. Of the immature I band in the nest a calendar week before fledging, about half are alive and with their parents the adjacent twelvemonth. Of grade some take disappeared and not died, but that's a pretty adept survival rate for birds anyway. Once they survive that outset twelvemonth they take a good chance of making it for several years more than. None of my birds endeavor to breed when they are one year former, and some are 6 years one-time and withal helping their parents. Boilerplate age of commencement reproduction for females is 3.3 years, and males boilerplate 4.9 years. Breeders have most 93% yearly survival. My survival data (biased towards the curt side past those that disappear) indicate that some crows should live to be 17 - 21 years old [notation this is a modify in the prediction from what I take had posted before Dec 1998, based on reanalysis of survival data]. The oldest known wild American Crow was 29 1/2 years old (run across Dilling, 1988, Ontario Bird Banding Association Newsletter 33: 2-3.). The second oldest known, withal, was merely 14 years, vii months (Clapp et al., 1983, Journal of Field Ornithology, 54(2): 123-137).

As of November 2010 we accept ii, probably three crows that were banded every bit nestlings in 1993 that are nevertheless alive, making them currently 17 years and 7 months old. Here is a photo of i of them, AP HART93 when he was just 17. You tin run across that his colored and metal bands accept fallen off, and the has merely the remnants of his wing tags.

What is the difference between a crow and a raven?

Crows and ravens, although in the same genus (Corvus) are dissimilar birds. (Recollect of leopards and tigers; both are in the genus Panthera, and are patently related, but they are quite distinct animals.) The words "crow" and "raven" themselves accept little or no real taxonomic meaning. That is, the Australian "ravens" are more closely related to the Australian "crows" than they are to the Common Raven (Corvus corax). In general, the biggest blackness species, normally with shaggy throat feathers, are called ravens and the smaller species are considered crows.

Common Ravens tin exist told from American Crows by a couple of things. The size difference, which is huge, is but useful with something else around to compare them with. Ravens are every bit big equally Cherry-tailed Hawks, and crows are, well, crow sized. The wedge-shaped tail of the raven is a good character, if you can see it well. Crows sometimes show an apparent wedge shape to the tail, but well-nigh never when information technology is fanned every bit the bird soars or banks (except for a brief time during molt in the summer).

More subtle characters include: ravens soar more than crows. If you see a "crow" soaring for more than than a few seconds, check it a 2nd time. Crows never do the somersault in flight that Common Ravens frequently do. Ravens are longer necked in flying than crows. The larger nib of the raven can be seen in flight, but it is actually less apparent than the long neck. Raven wings are shaped differently than are crow wings, with longer primaries ("fingers") with more slotting between them. Equally my neighbor said, "Ravens are the ones whose wings you can run into through." The longer primaries make the wings await more bent at the wrist than a crow as the bird flies, and the "hand" portion tin can look nearly pointed.

If seen perched in a good look, the huge beak and shaggy throat of a raven are diagnostic. The upper and lower edges of the bill are parallel for most of their length (3/iv?) in ravens, while in crows the downward curve starts somewhere around 2/iii of the mode out for males, and about halfway for females.

Merely recollect, ravens are pretty uncommon around here [Ithaca, NY]. If you run into a "really big crow!", chances are good that it really is a crow. Yes, in that location are large crows and small ones, merely you couldn't ever tell which was which. Any difference in size (380g - 660g is the weight range around here; 800 - 950 mm wingspan) among individuals is not detectable, in that the range of advent of a single crow (by fluffing or sleeking its feathers) is greater.

American Crows make the familiar "caw-caw," but besides accept a large repertoire of rattles, clicks, and fifty-fifty clear bong-like notes. Withal, they never give anything resembling the well-nigh mutual calls of Common Ravens. The most familiar call of a raven is a deep, reverberating croaking or "gronk-gronk." But occasionally volition a raven make a telephone call similar to a crow's "caw" just even then it is so deep as to be fairly easily distinguished from a real crow. Ravens likewise make a huge variety of different notes. It has been said (attributed to native Americans) that if yous hear something in the woods that you cannot identify (bold you lot know all the common forest sounds), it is a raven.

How exercise you lot tell a Fish Crow from an American Crow?

Fish Crows (Corvus ossifragus) are a rather minor species of crow endemic to the Southeastern United States. Typically they have been restricted to the coastline from southern New England to Texas, but in the last few decades accept been expanding their range, especially inland up big rivers.

Visually, Fish Crows are difficult to tell from American Crows. Unless ane has a great deal of experience in close observation of the species, identification is simply safely washed by vocalisation.

The calls of Fish Crows and American Crows are readily told autonomously. American Crows most oftentimes give the familiar "caw caw." Fish Crows take a much more nasal call that may exist improve enumerated "awh" or "uhn." The most diagnostic call of the Fish Crow is the double noted "uh-uh." I always say that if you want to tell the species of crow, inquire it if it is an American Crow. Fish Crows will deny this past their emphatic "uh-uh!"

Fish Crow calls tin be dislocated with the begging calls of American Crows. Information technology should be pointed out that these begging calls are given not just by dependent young crows, but also by developed crows in certain situations. Near prominently, early in the breeding cycle of American Crows the females volition give begging calls frequently.

For a much more detailed discussion of this identification trouble, go to my special Fish Crow ID page.

Tin can crows exist shot legally?

The Migratory Bird Treaty (Weeks-McLean Migratory Bird Police force), passed in 1913-xiv, ratified between the U.s.a. and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland (for Canada) in 1916, went into total event as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918. This law gave federal protection to nigh birds in North America, but did not extend protection to crows, and crows continued to be shot as "varmints" over about of their range. In 1936 Mexico was included in the treaty, but all the same crows were unprotected. In 1972 amendments to the treaty extended protection to 63 families of birds mutual to both the United States and Mexico, including birds of prey and crows. Every bit a result, at least theoretically, all native birds in the United states are protected past constabulary, but special permits can be obtained to deal with cases of nuisance birds causing damage or annoyances. This act makes it illegal "to possess, transport, or export whatsoever migratory bird, or any part, nest, or egg of whatever such bird." (That means you cannot legally have feathers from any local non-game bird!)

Crows, although not technically "migratory game birds" (like ducks) tin exist hunted in similar way in some states. The U.Southward. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations, 50 CFR Chapter 1 twenty.1 extends regulations to the hunting of "migratory game birds, and crows." The Act allows states the rights to establish hunting seasons on crows, with the exception of Hawaii where the just species present is the severely endangered Hawaiian Crow (Corvus hawaiiensis). 50 CFR 20.133 allows states to prepare their own seasons, pocketbook limits, and methods of taking crows subject field to certain limitations, namely that "1) Crows shall not be hunted from aircraft; 2) The hunting flavor or seasons on crows shall non exceed a full of 124 days during a calendar twelvemonth; 3) Hunting shall not be permitted during the top crow nesting flow inside a Land; and 4) Crows may merely be taken by firearms, bow and arrow, and falconry" (then no dynamite, poisonous substance, or traps).

Many states that have crow hunting seasons, like New York, permit hunting only iv days per week. This activity stretches the 124 days out and so that the season may extend nearly eight months. No state that I have yet seen has a bag limit on crows.

Interestingly, the New York season violated the Federal guidelines for several years. The season for 1997-98 ran 15 September through 14 Apr. In my study of American Crows in central New York, from 1989-1995 I observed or calculated (based on hatching appointment or size of nestlings) the start of incubation for 289 nests. The range of incubation-starts in this data set runs from 24 March through 1 June. That ways that eggs tin can be nowadays from 20 March through twenty June (based on an average of four days of laying and 19 days of incubation). Bull (1974, Birds of New York State) gives New York eggs dates for American Crows every bit xxx March to 14 June, in general understanding with these dates and indicative of the overall generalizability of the data for the land. 80.5% of all nests were existence incubated before the end of the New York hunting season on crows, in clear violation of 50 CFR 20.133. Nesting had begun at least a calendar week or ii before this time for those nests. Nest building tin can brainstorm in the offset week of March, just usually is full-bodied in the last 2 weeks. I personally don't consider the first few attempts at getting a twig in a tree existent nesting, but certainly the laying of eggs and onset of incubation must be. I provided these data to the NYSDEC in April 1997, and they were going to change the season for 1998-99 to end on 31 March (15 September - 31 March; Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays only). The 1998-99 NYSDEC hunting regulations, in fact were printed with a 31 March termination date. (Score one for the age of reason, or so I figured.) Apparently, all the same, some complaint from a crow hunter resulted in a tabling of the alter and DEC personnel were informed not to enforce the printed season closure. The 1999-2000 chase still extended into the center of the breeding season! I recently received word that the 2000-2001 dates volition exist (disallowment unforeseen changes) i September - 31 March. Then they finally got the chase out of the main function of the breeding season, and added the two lost weeks into the autumn.

In addition to hunting, crows may exist taken (i.e., shot) without a permit in certain circumstances. USFWS 50 CFR 21.43 (Depredation order for blackbirds, cowbirds, grackles, crows and magpies) states that a Federal let is not required to command these birds "when found committing or nearly to commit depredations upon ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, livestock, or wild animals, or when concentrated in such numbers and way as to plant a wellness hazard or other nuisance " Provided: a) that none of the birds killed or their parts are sold or offered for sale. b) That anyone exercising the privileges granted by this section shall permit any Federal or State game agent costless and unrestricted access over the premises where the operations have been or are conducted and will provide them with whatever information required by the officer. c) That nothing in the section authorizes the killing of such birds contrary to any State laws and that the person needs to possess whatever permit every bit may be required by the State. In New York state landowners or those cultivating lands may take without a permit "mutual crows …when the wild fauna is injuring property or becomes a nuisance."

Practice crows taste bad? Is that where the saying "to consume crow" comes from?

I take always been interested in how crows sense of taste for a couple of reasons. One is considering of the erstwhile adage "to swallow crow," pregnant to do something distasteful (like admit existence incorrect), which suggests that crows gustatory modality bad.

The etymology of a saying like "To eat crow" is often hard to trace. Often you will observe answers that sound expert, but are simply constructed stories made far after the fact to explain something unusual. (My father was good at these stories; unremarkably they involved "Sam" something-or-other)

I have been made aware of the following reports of the origin of "To eat crow" from a couple of spider web sites:

From the McDougal Littell spider web site http://www.mcdougallittell.com/, (�1999 Houghton Mifflin Company All Rights Reserved)

Idiom - eat crow

Definition - Be forced to acknowledge a humiliating mistake

Etymology - The term'southward origin has been lost, although a story relates that it involved a War of 1812 meet in which a British officer made an American soldier swallow part of a crow he had shot in British territory. Whether or not it is true, the fact remains that crow meat tastes terrible.

From "Food for Idea" by James R. Watson http://www.niva.com/original/writblok/fall97/a-origin.htm in the Fall 1997 issue of Writer's Block http://world wide web.niva.com/original/writblok/

"If you lot're feeling defeated, y'all simply must eat crow--a bird that is as tasty every bit information technology is melodious. It'southward one of our domestic dishes from a recipe allegedly discovered during the State of war of 1812. A Brit had caught an American shooting a crow on the wrong side of the border. He talked the Yank into handing over his gun, and then used it to force the fellow to accept a large bite out of the crow and swallow it. Needless to say, once the American had his gun back, he forced the Brit to consume the rest of the bird."

I actually practice not believe this story is the real origin of the saying. Information technology just sounds as well pat and likewise contrived. Also, I find it hard to believe that a single incident between unknown and relatively unnoteworthy individuals would make its way then pervasively into the full general lexicon. (Besides, which of these guys would spread this tale effectually? Neither one would desire to talk virtually it, I imagine!) Note that both accounts mention that crows taste bad, an unproven assumption.

I accept seen ii references to the edibility of crows in the technical ornithological literature (I'll have to look the references upwardly; I don't have them on the top of my head), and they are widely divergent. Ane says that they are foul (not fowl) and not worth eating. Another says that they taste just fine, as good as any other night-meated bird.

I accept had several opportunities to sample the mankind of crows (I volition not go into detail near how this came almost, but remember this is a legally hunted species). In my opinion, crow tastes just fine. It is similar to wild duck or any other wild bird with very dark meat. Crows have no white meat on them, every bit is true for well-nigh birds. (Whenever someone says something "tastes like chicken" remember that they're talking about the Night meat of chicken, not the white.) The meat of most wild birds is even darker than the dark meat of chicken, and will have a gamy odour and flavor to a varying extent.

New York (and near states with hunting seasons) set no daily handbag limit on crows. Virtually literature on hunting them tells the hunters to be considerate to the property possessor and collect the crows into ane big pile instead of leaving them scattered over the field. A few mention that crows are edible and requite some recipes for cooking them. I think if I knew people were eating the crows, crow hunting would experience more acceptable and less like vandalism.

Do crows cast pellets like hawks and owls?

Nigh birds that consume indigestible foods produce pellets. I know for a fact that crows and jays (at least Blue and Florida Scrub-) produce pellets, and I am certain that nearly other insectivorous birds exercise as well. I'g not sure why all we know nearly are owl pellets. Perhaps information technology'due south because they roost in recognizable spots and produce large, cohesive pellets with lots of hair to concur them together. If anyone would carp to look under a crow roost they would detect hundreds of small lumps of grain and gravel that stand for the crows' pellets. Not having much pilus in them, they autumn autonomously quickly and might be disregarded if you lot didn't know what to look for. In the winter of 1996-97 I was exploring nether a medium to large crow roost in cardinal Ohio (somewhere betwixt 14,000-50,000) and was surprised at the amount of gravel that was moved. Take about 5 small stones (each about 2 mm in bore), figure a pellet every other mean solar day over the course of 5 months, and multiply by 50,000, and you come up upward with a significant corporeality of material moved! (I figure, at a conservative 0.ii grams per load, 750 kilograms of gravel or one,650 pounds.)

Do male crows always incubate?

I take never seen a male American Crow incubate, and I have non heard of whatever truly convincing cases of males incubating. My colleague Dr. Carolee Caffrey has spent hundreds of hours watching nests of marked crows in California, and she also has never seen anyone just the breeding female incubate. Female-only incubation is typical of the family Corvidae. Only females get brood patches, the defeathered, highly vascularized patches on the belly and chest that are in contact with the eggs. Any report of males incubating needs detailed verification. (Encounter for example, Hailman & Woolfenden, 1985, Nest-defence of the Florida Scrub Jay and the problem of "incubation" by male passerines, Wilson Bulletin 97(three): 370-372.)

The reports of shared incubation in pop reference sources (similar Harrison's bird nest volume) appear to be repeated quotes from the aforementioned source: Aptitude'south life histories, quoting Bendire. I have read Bendire (1895, Life histories of North American birds) and he gives admittedly no details. Only you lot know what they say, that if something is repeated often enough information technology becomes fact.

I have made a couple of observations that might explicate some reports of male incubation. Helping females sometimes endeavour to incubate. When the breeding female is off the nest these younger birds will slip in and sit down on the eggs or nestlings. They normally wait nervous, constantly looking effectually, and always exit very quickly when they see another crow approaching. Different the incubating female, they are never fed on the nest and are ofttimes chased away.

A second instance is when the breeding male comes and feeds the incubating female. Often the female will leave the nest for a while. The male usually remains nearby to guard the nest. Near frequently he will perch well-nigh the nest or even on the border of it. Very infrequently he volition actually footstep down into the nest and stand in it. I find that male person Fish Crows exercise this rather regularly. These males do non, however, actually incubate. That is, they practise not put their bodies in contact with the eggs and transfer heat.

I saw crows fighting and it looked like one was going to impale the other. Why would they do that?

Crows are very social species and live in large extended family groups. That does not hateful, however, that they are friendly with all other crows. But as we humans are social and love our families and friends, nosotros also have been known to fight and kill each other on occasion. Birds may fight for a number of reasons, such as defending territory boundaries, protecting their mate (or sexual access to them), or defending some other resource. Crow fights inside a family unit are unremarkably curt and involve only a few pecks. (Crows, in my experience, actually seem to have very few intra-family squabbles compared to some bird species.) Fights between members of different families, however, can be protracted and deadly. I oftentimes encounter crows locked together tumbling out of trees in the spring. Although I have never witnessed an actual killing, I would non exist at all surprised to come across crows kill another crow from outside the family group that was trespassing.

Another possible explanation of extreme violence is that the attacked crow was already injured. Injured, sick, or oddly acting birds are often attacked by their ain species. Crows are no exception. One explanation for this beliefs is that having an injured individual around is dangerous to others in that it might concenter predators. Not only that, only a vulnerable crow could teach a predator to hunt for crows, which might endanger other crows. With this line of reasoning, crows would be best served past getting rid of an odd ball. I practise not know if crows would eat another crow they killed. They might, simply I rather expect they would non.

Do the male and female person crow mate for life?

More or less. In general, it appears that they do. Unless a mate is killed or severely incapacitated, crows appear to stay with the same mate year subsequently yr. Information technology is possible, all the same, for exceptions to occur. Generally this would happen in the case of a immature pair of birds that mated just bred unsuccessfully. They might break the pair bond and endeavor again with someone else. I had one young male return domicile afterward an unsuccessful first nesting try. Because the female person was unmarked I exercise not know if she died or also went dwelling to her folks.

Are crows ever white or have white in the wings?

Yeah. Click hither to find out more

We take a pair of crows in our backyard that use our bird bath as a depository for all of the carcasses they find. At that place are various snakes and rodents in the bathroom correct now. It is disgusting. Why do they do that?

Crows and all members of the family Corvidae will store backlog food. Sometimes you can run into crows bury things in the grass of the yard (usually roofing it up with a foliage or plucked grass; sometimes looking at it several times and using a number of dissimilar coverings before being satisfied that it really is hidden). They also hibernate nutrient in trees or rain gutters, or whatever is a handy spot. At this time of the year (Apr) crows are nesting, and the female breeder sits all solar day on the eggs or immature nestlings. She leaves the nest just infrequently and the male person and the helpers bring her food. Food is easy to bring (all pecked into pieces and stashed in the throat nether the tongue), but water is harder. So, crows often will dunk dry foods in water and take the moistened nutrient to the nest. Information technology is likely that that is what is going on in the birdbath. In my feel with several convict crows, some individual crows also seem more than inclined to put food in water and leave information technology there than others. Perhaps they desire it to rot a little to ameliorate the season a flake before they eat it (simply like nosotros do when we "age" beef).

Since the crows came we don't have whatever little birds around anymore!

Crows are predators and scavengers, and volition consume anything they tin subdue. That said, the bulk of their nutrition (in this area, anyway) consists of waste grain in winter, and earthworms and other terrestrial invertebrates in the spring and summertime. Crows will consume eggs and nestlings of songbirds, and in some areas might have a pregnant bear upon of a local population of birds. Far more probable, however, is that crows are but one of a host of species preying on the "desirable" wildlife, and removing crows will make no change in the end outcome (that of most of the immature birds/eggs being eaten). A number of studies have been done, removing crows and looking at the resulting nest success of birds the crows depredated, that illustrate this signal. Removal of crows does NOT increase nest success or survival of the bird to be protected. Nearly e'er some other predator steps up to eat the same number of eggs and young birds, or they dice for other reasons.

This idea of compensatory bloodshed is a very difficult ane for people to believe. It is not intuitive. "Common sense" says that if you become rid of i source of mortality that the overall mortality rate should get down. In fact, the world does non human action this way. I similar to use the analogy of handicapped parking spaces at the mall You drive up to the mall, looking for a parking space in a crowded lot. You can't find a parking space, just at that place are 4 virtually the entrance that are reserved for handicapped permits but. You complain and recollect that if only those handicapped restrictions weren't at that place, you could park in those spots (mutual sense). In truth, of form, if those spaces were not reserved they would have been taken long ago, only like all the other spaces in the lot. And then if 1 more than egg hatches, that will be ane more nestling that gets eaten past a raccoon. Or if one more nestling makes it out of the nest, that's one more fledging for the local Cooper's Militarist to eat. Or, if one more young bird survives to wing to South America, that'southward one more bird that falls into the ocean during the bad storm (1001dying instead of 1000). And then on and so on. This concept of compensatory mortality is vital to the thought of game management. What it says to the managers is that information technology doesn't matter to the population if hunters accept a bunch of young that were slated to die anyway. If you proceed your take inside the limits of the bloodshed that normally occurs, exactly NOTHING happens to the overall population, fifty-fifty if y'all kill a million individuals (like the million Mallards that are killed in the United states every twelvemonth). And it works! Of grade, if you exceed the normal mortality things go awry. Or if the sources of mortality increase in an unusual way (huge losses in habitat, for instance, or full loss of nutrient supply at a staging ground) then bad things happen. But the normal fluctuations of a stable community but absorb the small perturbations.

And then, although you lot might meet a crow eating a infant robin, that is not bad. Nearly baby robins dice before reaching adulthood. That's why the robins nest so many times during the summertime. The presence of crows in an area will not mean all the robins and cardinals will disappear. In fact, despite a slight merely significant increment in American Crow populations in Northward America since the mid-1960'southward, American Robin populations accept increased (nearly identically to crows) and those of Northern Cardinals have stayed steady (Due north American Breeding Bird Survey data). The just species of bird that is decreasing in North America in which I MIGHT be convinced crows play a meaning role is Mutual Nighthawk, and that merely in urban areas (and as yet this is all speculation). Urban nighthawks accept such a specialized nest site selection (flat gravel roofs) that crows might be able to figure them out and find near of the nests in an area.

In summary, crows are NOT a problem to well-nigh songbird populations, peculiarly not those that are likely to be found around people'southward houses. When crows move in, the other birds don't get out. I try to encourage people to enjoy the crows also as the other birds. Crows are fascinating animals in their own right. I happen to think they are aesthetically pleasing to wait at as well. Granted, they are not brightly colored, they get up as well early in the forenoon, and they are loud. No other bird in our expanse, nonetheless, has such a human-similar personality and social system as the American Crow. Please encounter the other data on my web pages about their family lives. Try to get people to understand that it is not a "gang" of crows in their backyard, merely a family unit.

We've got crows hanging out in our k. How can nosotros get rid of these pests?

Good luck! One time crows have decided to come to your yard, information technology might be hard to convince them to leave. Plastic owl decoys volition work, ... for nigh fifteen minutes. A dog could be more than constructive, especially if it was encouraged to hunt them. If, however, something really special was attracting the crows to the yard (like readily available food), the crows probably would figure a style how to go information technology and avert the dog. The idea is to brand the yard an unattractive place for the crows. Cutting down your copse if you accept to. Hunt them when possible and brand it obvious that you are after THEM, not only going out in the yard for other reasons (it volition make a departure, trust me, merely see below for the associated risks of this technique). Killing the crows is not a recommended option. It tin can be done legally only in a few areas (out of the city, and with permits or a hunting license). Simply, if i family of crows found your thou desirable, chances are others will too. Crow club is filled with excess crows that are waiting for an opportunity to breed (the helpers staying abode and helping the parents raise young). If you impale some territory holders off, yous just create a breeding opportunity for the crows waiting in the wings.

A far better solution is to piece of work on your own attitudes, non the crows'. Pests are like weeds: their condition relies entirely on your signal of view and country of mind. What is a weed to one person is a beautiful bloom to some other. It is my experience that if you permit something bother you, information technology will. The more upset you get well-nigh information technology, the more than information technology bothers you, and the more information technology bothers you the more upset you get, and the more upset you get the more information technology bothers yous, then on and and so on, until you lot explode. Although some measures do exist to change crow behavior, it might be easier and more constructive to attempt to change people'southward attitudes about crows. (I really have fiddling promise of doing either!)

Crows are non evil, and they are not purposely trying to torment you lot. They are just being crows, trying to live their lives and feed their families. Bodily property destruction is one thing that might require action, only only beingness annoying is something else again. Attempt to capeesh the crows for the fascinating creatures they are. If you get over that hurdle, the abrasive habits become much less annoying. I have said that crows are much like my family or my dog: they do many things that badger me, but I love them and am willing to overlook (most) of the annoying things because the relationship is primarily positive on the whole.

Crows practise have ane endearing characteristic that is apparently non shared past other birds. They will go to know people as individuals. While you can get chickadees to swallow out of your hand, whatsoever old mitt will do, and I suspect that the chickadees do not know you lot every bit an individual. Crows will! If you toss them peanuts (I recommend unsalted, in the shell) on a regular basis, they will expect and scout for you. Non only whatever person, but you lot. If you do this oftentimes enough, they will follow you down the street to go more. I have made a betoken of getting on the adept side of a number of crow families around Ithaca. Some will follow my motorcar down the street, and if I don't find them and toss them peanuts they will nuance across the windshield to let me know they are at that place. Some of these crows recognize me far from their dwelling house territories, way out of context. (It did, however, take some of them a long fourth dimension to learn to recognize my new auto.) So indulge yourself and makes some personal friends with the crows. That is the preferred relationship, considering they also are happy to turn this talent of recognition to the darker side, and treat you as an enemy. (Again, non simply all people, but You.) Because I climb to crow nests to band immature birds, many crows in Ithaca know me and hate me. Whenever they detect me in their territory they will come over and yell at me. They will follow me around and keep yelling for as long equally I am there. Believe me, it's better to be on their good side than their bad side!

My 10 year old son keeps having crows trying to attack him. He will exist out in the yard and they come swooping down on his head. He has done nothing to them and he is terrified to go out side alone now. I take been out there and they have not bothered me. Delight tell me what I can do.

Since you gave no indication of where you lot live, I take to guess on exactly what is happening. Simply, correct now (late May) in almost areas of the country crow babies are just fledging (leaving the nest). In the first couple of weeks that the young are out of the nest they cannot fly well and are very vulnerable to predation. They hide in the trees and the parents are very protective of them. At this time the parents will mob (assault) any potential predator in the surface area. Unremarkably this ways cats and dogs, just it appears that your son elicits the same response. You lot are likewise big to take chances getting likewise near. Just look a few days and the fledglings volition leave your yard and the parents will calm downwardly. Try to proceed in mind that these birds are not vicious fiends bent on your son's destruction, only merely dedicated parents trying to defend their own young in the best way they know.

What mythologies are associated with crows?

Lots, but they're style more boring than the real stuff crows do! (I'thou a biologist, not an anthropologist. These things tell yous lots nigh people, merely niggling most animals. IMHO) If you really must go after this textile, try the links from The American Society of Crows and Ravens.

I found a baby crow that must have fallen from the nest/been abandoned/is injured!

What should I do?

Probably you should put information technology back where you lot plant information technology. If you lot don't like that idea, contact a licensed wild fauna rehabilitator. For a lot more on this topic, click here.

We accept a pair of crows tearing our windshield wiper blades off our vehicles. We have no explanation for this activity or how to stop it. Can you lot offer some advice or comments on the behavior?

This is a very odd one. I have now heard about this kind of crow vandalism from nearly a dozen people in a dozen dissimilar parts of the country, and I am stumped as to how to explicate it. All I can say is that crows are very investigative and curious, and it is possible that these traits have led them to investigate the wipers. Wipers do non resemble nutrient to me, then I cannot think of a good reason they would attract crows. The wiper blades themselves, though, are exactly the sort of thing that young crows might like to fiddle with: pliant yet resistant; soft enough to dismantle, only tough enough to requite a bit of a challenge. Immature crows in their starting time and second years often "play" with things that are not edible and do not involvement older crows. Siblings sentinel each other as well, and often vie for the object in question (exist information technology a plume, a stick, or, perhaps a windshield wiper blade). So, it is possible that one immature crow found out about how fun windshield wipers were and then "taught" other family members.

What to do about this? Harassment is probably the all-time policy. Hunt those crows any time you see them effectually your cars. They volition probably continue coming dorsum, and they volition probably learn to hate you on sight. Notwithstanding, it might keep them off. You might also try adding some novelty to the vehicle or where yous park them. Crows do non like new things in an area where humans hang out. Small-scale, simply obvious changes in the area or on the vehicles might be plenty to get them worried. A tassel hanging from the radio antenna might be plenty of something new to keep them away for a while. If none of this works, try getting a car encompass like people with expensive antique cars apply. It might be a pain, but it volition probably be less expensive than weekly windshield wiper replacements.

What is a group of crows called (as in "a gaggle of geese")?

The poetic term for a bunch of crows is a "murder." No scientist calls them that, only poets. Scientists would call it a flock.

Who builds the nest, and what exercise they look like?

In the beginning stages of the nest both members of the pair, besides as some helpers many times, work as hard on building the nest. In fact, the male tin be fifty-fifty more than active getting started. The breeding female, though, unremarkably does the near building at the end when they are lining the nest. She is the ane who gets everything comfy in in that location, because she is the simply one who sits in the nest to incubate and brood the immature.

American Crow nests are bulky things that are constructed of 3 parts 1) an outer basket of sticks, 2) a filling of mud and grass (oftentimes the grass is visible sticking out the bottom of the nest; a skillful clue it's a crow nest), and iii) a thick bowl of something soft. Grapevine bark and cedar mulch, seem to be the about popular lining materials around here, with mammal fur and twine common. Paper is unusual only does become used, as does plastic occasionally. Peradventure the most unusual lining material I have found were some Emu feathers.

Do crows collect shiny objects?

No.  Wild crows do not like, nor collect shiny objects. They do not hibernate, store, or cache anything but food. I believe that all stories of crows and magpies taking shiny objects come from people's experiences with captive, hand-raised young birds.

Immature corvids are very investigative, and love to handle objects. They like to selection them upwards, peck at them, then hide them. Virtually corvid species hide food for later retrieval (some, like the nutcrackers in the genus Nucifraga, are extreme, hiding and remembering thousands and thousands of seeds). Juvenile birds "play" with inedible objects, picking them upward, pecking them, and eventually hiding them. (Play is merely doing appropriate deportment with inappropriate objects, merely like children playing house.) In the wild, they would play with sticks, stones, acorn caps, and things similar that. In captivity, they will do the same thing to merely virtually anything small and portable, and they may be attracted to shiny things, like keys, coins, or the like. Most corvids are "scatter hoarders" and hide only one or a few things in any ane location (rather than being "larder hoarders" that shop everything in 1 place, like a packrat).  So if your pet crow hid your keys, don't await to notice them in the same place that you discover your diamond ring.

More on these afterward:

What practise crows eat?

everything

Why do crows gather in flocks during the twenty-four hours?

to cruise the singles' flocks

How smart are crows?

smarter than many undergraduates, simply probably not as smart as ravens

Are crows getting bigger?

no

Are crow populations increasing?

probably, only not as much every bit y'all think

How can you lot tell a male crow from a female?

not easily

How many different calls do crows brand?

lots, but virtually of them still sound like "caw"

Why do crows hate owls?

many good reasons, nearly having to exercise with decapitated crows

Exercise crows play?

yeah

Do crows make good pets?

yep, just they're VERY illegal

INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT CROWS THAT About PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ENOUGH TO ASK Nearly (More on these later on):

Cooperative breeding

Long-term pair bonds

Long-term family bonds

Sibling helping

Breed reduction

Territoriality and flock use

Urban/rural comparing

Dispersal

Historic period of first breeding

Caching of food

50 species of Corvus

Historical range of C. brachyrhynchos

Return to the Crow Folio.

Render to Kevin McGowan's Home Page

Terminal updated 09-Nov-2010

carraffor1956.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm

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