American Crow
American Crows are familiar over much of the continent: large, intelligent, all-black birds with hoarse, cawing voices. They are common sights in treetops, fields, and roadsides, and in habitats ranging from open woods and empty beaches to town centers. They usually feed on the ground and eat almost anything typically earthworms, insects and other small animals, seeds, and fruit but also garbage, carrion, and chicks they rob from nests. Their flight style is unique; a patient, methodical flapping that is rarely broken up with glides. Crows are rarely found alone.
Cool Facts
1. American Crows congregate in large numbers in winter to sleep in communal roosts. These roosts can be of a few hundred up to two million crows. Some roosts have been forming in the same general area for well over 100 years. In the last few decades some of these roosts have moved into urban areas where the noise and mess cause conflicts with people.
2. Young American Crows do not breed until they are at least two years old, and most do not breed until they are four or more. In most populations the young help their parents raise young for a few years. Families may include up to 15 individuals and contain young from five different years.
3. The American Crow appears to be the biggest victim of West Nile virus, a disease recently introduced to North America. Crows die within one week of infection and few seem able to survive exposure. No other North American bird is dying at the same rate from the disease, and the loss of crows in some areas has been severe.
4. In some areas the American Crow has a double life. It maintains a territory year round in which the entire extended family lives and forages together; but during much of the year, individual crows leave the home territory to join large flocks at dumps and agricultural fields and to sleep in large roosts in winter. Family members go together to the flocks, but do not stay together in the crowd. A crow may spend part of the day at home with its family in town and the rest with a flock feeding on waste grain out in the country.
5. Despite its tendency to eat roadkill, the American Crow is not specialized to be a scavenger, and carrion is only a very small part of its diet. Though their bills are large, crows can’t break through the skin of even a gray squirrel. They must wait for something else to open a carcass or for the carcass to decompose and become tender enough to eat.
6. Crows are crafty foragers that sometimes follow adult birds to find where their nests are hidden. They sometimes steal food from other animals. A group of crows was seen distracting a river otter to steal its fish, and another group followed Common Mergansers to catch minnows the ducks were chasing into the shallows. They also sometimes follow songbirds as they arrive from a long migration flight and capture the exhausted birds. Crows also catch fish, eat from outdoor dog dishes, and take fruit from trees.
7. Crows sometimes make and use tools. Examples include a captive crow using a cup to carry water over to a bowl of dry mash; shaping a piece of wood and then sticking it into a hole in a fence post in search of food; and breaking off pieces of pine cone to drop on tree climbers near a nest.
8. The oldest recorded wild American Crow was 16 years old. A captive crow that died in New York lived to be 59 years old.
9. The size is nearly twice the size of a Blue Jay; about two-thirds the size of a Common Raven.
10. Crows are highly intelligent animals; not all people are smart enough to be crows! It‟s important to remember this, because controlling crows will involve multiple techniques. Crows will quickly adapt to control tactics and change their behavior to avoid them.
11. American Crows are black from their beak to their tail with a shiny violet/purple sheen. They are larger than a Fish crow.
12. They‛re very smart birds. They can solve puzzles, learn symbols, and remember information.
13. Nesting groups of crows share tasks, so one crow might serve as a guard while another finds food and another gives an alarm if a hawk or great horned owl approaches. They like to chase owls and hawks!
14. They‛re an omnivore eating everything including insects, snails, lizards, small mammals, bird eggs, young birds, corn, fruit, garbage, McDonalds French fries, and road kill.
15. Even though they are excellent detectives at finding where humans picnic, it‛s not healthy for them to eat our food. Help the crows by not feeding them our human food.
16. Crows are omnivorous and eat whatever is available insects, spiders, snails, fish, snakes, eggs, nestling birds, cultivated fruits, nuts, and vegetables. They also scavenge dead animals and garbage.
18. Crows are known to drop hard shelled nuts onto a street, and then wait for passing automobiles to crack them. Similarly, along the coast they drop mussels and other shellfish on rocks to crack the shells and expose the flesh.
19. Outside of the breeding season, crows travel as far as 40 miles each day from evening roost sites to daytime feeding areas.
20. Crows usually post “sentries,” who alert the feeding birds of danger.
21. Hawks and owls inhabit old crow nests; raccoons and tree squirrels use them as summer napping platforms.
22. Ravens can be distinguished from crows by their larger size, much larger bill, and long, wedge-shaped tail . In addition, a raven’s flight pattern commonly includes soaring or gliding, while crows have a frequent steady, “rowing” wing-beat with little or no gliding.
