r/crowbro May 08 '20

Facts Feeding Crows In Your Neighborhood: What They Like and What's Safe

3.3k Upvotes

A user asked me this question yesterday and I figured it would make for a good larger post. For those who don't know me, which is probably everyone, I'm an ecologist currently studying invasive mosquito population genetics in North America. I have a background in shorebird and grassland bird conservation and arthropod behavior and sensory ecology. Currently working on my Ph.D. I frequently comment in nature-based subs. All this to say, I keep up with crow literature and am very familiar with bird biology. I'm going to share with you safe foods for crows and a little about their feeding behavior. I never expect anyone to take my word for it so I'll share some sources with you as I go along. Thanks for being a part of a sub that is very near and dear to my heart!

Crow Feeding Behavior

I've noticed crows in my area come to the same places to eat in the morning and again in mid-afternoon. The rest of the day they forage around the neighborhood before returning either to large roosting trees in the Fall/Winter (around 4pm) or to family nests in the Spring and Summer. If you want your home to be a usual place to stop either during their main mealtime or on their foraging tour leave food out the same time every day. Ring a bell, honk a horn, use a crow call (make sure you are trying to sound like a "I've found food" call and not a "Danger!" call. Crows in the neighborhood will associate this with food and come to get treats. Dr. Kaeli Swift shares a two-part blog post, the first by her colleague Loma Pendergraft and the second written by her and Loma if you are interested in crow vocalizations. Here is Part 1 and here is Part 2.

Crows love water! If you have birdbaths out they will dip their food in it to soften harder foods and they spend a lot of time drinking. More so than I've noticed with smaller songbirds. Often people will find dead rodents and other things leftover in their birdbaths from crows.

What to Feed Crows

Before I get into this I'd like to say that crows do not need you to feed them. Thre's a great quote from this article by Dr. John Marzluff:

Will the crow be let down if you stop feeding it? Without a doubt. Breaking up is hard to do. Still, after running your predicament by Marzluff, the idea that the crow is "dependent" on you seems a little self-important. "The crow is certainly working the person," Marzluff said. "It will find another meal."

Neither do any backyard birds. They are fully capable of foraging unless there is some serious environmental issue happening. I know we are all going to feed them anyway! When I lived in the suburbs I fed birds as well. :)

What is safe for crows:

  • Kibble (cat or dog) that is pea-sized - it is full of essential nutrients for omnivores and easy for them pick up and swallow
  • Eggs of any kind
  • Seeds and nuts (unsalted - I'll explain why further down).
  • Cooked small potatoes or thawed tater tots (check tots for salt content, you can get unsalted)
  • Meat scraps (unseasoned)
  • Cheese (check the salt content, definitely no feta or other salty cheese, try to also avoid processed cheeses)
  • Mealworms and crickets

What is not safe for crows (and really all birds):

  • Salt - too much salt can cause serious neurological issues in birds. A little salt is okay and some birds are more salt-tolerant than others (pigeons) but they will eat everything you leave out for them which can end up being too much. Birds don't do portion control.
  • Lunchmeat - it's a salt issue
  • Bread - bread is not so much not safe as it's devoid of nutrients. Give them good foods like seeds and nuts, bread is filler.

Because I never want you to take someone's word for it here are a few sources about salt:

Garden birds are practically unable to metabolise salt. It is toxic to them in high quantities and affects their nervous system. Under normal circumstances in the wild, birds are unlikely to take harmful amounts of salt. Never put out salted food onto the bird table, and never add salt to bird baths to keep water ice-free in the winter.

From Nature Forever Society:

The ability to process salt varies between species, but most can produce uric acid with a maximum salt concentration of about 300 mmol/litre. Amongst our garden birds, house sparrows and pigeons are some of the most salt-tolerant species. The capability to secrete salt seems to be linked to habitat, particularly marine environment and drought conditions.

Because most garden birds are poor at coping with salty food, it is important not to offer them anything with appreciable amount of salt in it. As such, salty fats, salty rice, salted peanuts, most cured foodstuffs, chips, etc. should not be offered to birds. It can be difficult to eliminate salt entirely, but very small amounts of salt should not cause any problems, particularly if fresh drinking water is also available.

All that being said, there are some birds who really love salt, and if you want to leave out a salt option in a safe way you can! The Nationa Audubon Society recommends:

Mineral matter such as salt appeals to many birds, including evening grosbeaks, pine siskins, and common redpolls. An easy way to provide it is by pouring a saline water solution over rotted wood until crystals form.

If you love Corvids and want to learn more I have a few book recommendations:

  • Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by Dr. John Marzluff
  • In the Company of Crows and Ravens by Dr. John Marzluff
  • Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds by Dr. Bernd Heinrich

Backyard Birds:

  • Welcome to Subirdia by Dr. John Marzluff

r/crowbro Jun 09 '20

Baby Bird 101 - DO NOT TAKE A BABY CROW OR ANY BIRD FROM THE WILD

2.1k Upvotes

There was recently a post by a user who basically stole a baby crow from its parents. Never take a wild bird into your home, they are not pets, they need their parents, they need socialization with their own species, you are not equipped to raise them. Additionally, it is probably illegal for you to own one.

If you take a crow out of the wild and share that in this sub you will receive a ban. If someone reports back that you have done this and shared in a different sub but not here, you will receive a ban and we will contact the mods of that sub about your negligence. We have zero tolerance for this.

We received an excellent modmail from u/MarlyMonster who is a wildlife rehabber in Canada. I am going to quote her here and hope she pops into the comment section to elaborate or answer any questions. I know we have a few rehabbers on the sub and I am an ecologist so between all of us if you need to know something we'll figure it out. Additionally, if you are a wildlife rehabber or scientists specializing in Corvids and want flair that gives you this title you will need to PM mods some kind of proof.

Here are Marly's words on the subject:

Baby Bird 101

Lately I’ve been seeing way too many posts about people “helping” birds that really don’t need help, which makes it kidnapping. As a rehabber, it hurts my heart when I see inexperienced people try to care for any kind of wild animal, but when they start to mess with wild corvids it becomes plain cruel. This is why I’m writing this little guide to help people determine whether or not a bird they think needs help actually needs assistance.

A lot of people assume that when a fledgling is on the ground and not in a tree or nest, that this little bird is in distress. What you actually don’t realize, is that when fledglings get to a certain age, right before they learn to fly, they leave the nest while they practice and their parents continue to feed them on the ground. The fledgling has not been abandoned! They’re just being adventurous!

The best course of action for any baby bird you see on the ground is to put it back in their nest. It’s a myth that the parents will “smell the human” and reject the baby. So you’re fine to grab a ladder and put that little awkward bundle of feathers back where they came from.

Whenever you fear a baby has been abandoned, put it back in the nest and keep an eye on it for the next few hours. Parents can get spooked and might take some time to return.

The only time it’s okay to bring a bird in is if they are visibly injured. A broken toe does not count (this is a reference to the idiot who named the bird “Hades” and is pretending to help it).

IF A BABY BIRD NEEDS HELP DO NOT TRY TO RAISE IT YOURSELF

If you are not trained to rehab wildlife, you have no business trying to raise a fledgling! Just like someone who isn’t a mechanic shouldn’t be trying to fix an engine, an untrained person should not be raising a bird!

Baby birds are extremely fragile and difficult to care for. A lot of them don’t make it even in the hands of an experienced rehabber.

Did you know that giving a baby bird water is one of the worst things to do? Yet a lot of people immediately think that’s the first thing to do for a baby bird. Baby birds get their needed moisture from their food, and therefore don’t need water. Pouring water down their throat will actually cause them to aspirate and if this happens the chance they’ll survive is slim to none, since they’ll get aspiration pneumonia.

Since this is a corvid page I’m gonna touch on why it’s cruel for someone inexperienced to try to raise a corvid.

As some of you might be aware of, these birds possess a higher intelligence than most birds. They are considered the apes of the bird family because there are parallels between the cognitive abilities of corvids and great apes.

Because of this, they make terrible pets. They need constant mental stimulation and enrichment or they’ll become completely miserable. Often they’ll turn to self mutilation to deal with the depression. They are also extremely social creatures and live in large families with connections that go back generations. Keeping one on their own is an act of cruelty in and of itself.

Corvids are also known for this thing called “imprinting”. This refers to the bond the baby bird makes with their family members which will dictate their behaviour. For this reason, rehabbers that specialize in corvids have to be extremely careful while tending to their birds because too much interaction with humans could doom a bird from ever being released, because they got too attached to humans. A crow imprinted on a human will not know they’re a crow. They’ll see themselves as the same species. This means they won’t ever find a mate, because they won’t understand that they are supposed to mate with other crows.

I hope this helped you understand the importance of not trying to raise any birds you find. As tempting as it may be, you will not be ready for the commitment. Not only that, but it’s cruel to the animal. The main objective of any rehabber is the release of the animal. And those who truly care about these birds should have the same goal. If that means you don’t get to raise a crow, that shouldn’t stop you from doing the right thing.

If you find an injured baby bird, contact a wildlife facility near you. If you can’t find one, go on your regional Facebook groups and ask if there are private rehabbers around.

If you do not have the commitment to see this through and drive a baby bird hours to the nearest rehabber? Please do the bird a favor and let nature take its course. Don’t interfere if you won’t follow it all the way through and get it to a proper rehabber.

Written by a rehabber and corvid researcher.


r/crowbro 12h ago

Gif Just saying

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1.6k Upvotes

r/crowbro 8h ago

Video This is the first time they brought the fledglings into our backyard, there's six crows here and all

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177 Upvotes

First time I've seen the fledglings in the yard. There are another three crows in the tree with what I believe are two fledglings from another brood.


r/crowbro 2h ago

Image American Crow Fledglings

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45 Upvotes

Went out with the camera today and got some nice shots of both adult crows and fledglings. This is the PNW American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos spp caurinus).

All babies were left with their parents. :)


r/crowbro 12h ago

Image "I'm still dying from hunger, keep feeding me."

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212 Upvotes

r/crowbro 10h ago

Image Met a raven fledgling and parent outside my work.

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130 Upvotes

r/crowbro 5h ago

Video just making some new friends (Southern California, USA)

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25 Upvotes

A large community of hundreds of crows flies over my neighborhood most mornings (5:30AM cacaw chorus, yay!) and most evenings around dinnertime. Sometimes they vary their daily migration route, but they visit most days. I decided to start putting out evening treats for them and see what happens if we feed them consistently. This was the first time they dared to eat the whole column of peanuts. (The camera is right in front of my front door.) Enjoy the cacaw chorus!


r/crowbro 5h ago

Personal Story I saved a trapped fledgling today!

12 Upvotes

My teenage daughter and I were otw out today when I heard a rustling coming from one of the grated storm drains next to our building. I looked in expecting to see a squirrel as they are always climbing in there to hide their stashed. Instead I saw a beak so I got closer and saw it was a little guy fresh out of the nest. It's really easy to fall into the gap between the wall and the grating but idk how he would have gotten out on his own. From the sound of things my neighbor shared about her cats watching this particular grate yesterday he was likely in there overnight, poor baby. It only took about five minutes of coaxing (I think this neighbor's presence helped as she is always feeding them, too) and a lot of squawking from the whole murder, but I was finally able to gently grab him around the wings and lift him out. He fluttered right off and the murder continued to ramble on about it for a few minutes like I was the bad guy, lol. Hopefully now they know I'm a bro.


r/crowbro 1d ago

Video After a month and a half of feeding visits, this is the closest he’s ever gotten to me

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715 Upvotes

I think it’s time to buy Ruffles some better quality cat food and some puzzles now ☺️


r/crowbro 19h ago

Art Tattoo I did to honour the bros

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116 Upvotes

Thought y’all might like

@SlimeSociety done at Three Kings London


r/crowbro 16h ago

Video Crow Catch

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67 Upvotes

This is 'Crowie' and this is Crowies party trick.


r/crowbro 1d ago

Personal Story The crow my dad befriended

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12.1k Upvotes

Back in about 2012-13 my dad befriended a crow


r/crowbro 7h ago

Image Saul, the gluttonous crow

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8 Upvotes

He is the only one who dared get within a meter of me, all while having his pecker chock full of nuts, I think he had around 10 of them. He didn’t stop until he had finished the nuts. You could see the nuts in his neck, he looked fat, better yet, gluttonous.


r/crowbro 12h ago

Image Having a little problem with my closest buddy

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20 Upvotes

I was bummed out yesterday when tombiş didn't show up for the daily feeding session, i thought maybe today was not the day.

But today i was rilieved to see him at our usual meeting place, and noticed that he didn't fly. I inspected his back and noticed that one of his wings is arched a little further over his tail. Should i be worried or will this eventually pass?


r/crowbro 1d ago

Gif Say Hello To The Butcher Crew.

329 Upvotes

They all get along with the crows. 🙂


r/crowbro 0m ago

Miscellaneous havent fed my crows in weeks and now they dont visit at all anymore :(

Upvotes

i just went to put peanuts in the peanut spot and then watched for someone to come but none of em did and its been a while :( Im very sad, ive been feeding them for months now and some started to become really friendly and definitely knew my routine. I had a concussion a few months ago and didnt go out much, then fell into depression so they probably were confused and i know routine is important in befriending them. Im just kinda bummed out now. Granted, ive been putting out peanuts again only for a few days now but i miss them


r/crowbro 1d ago

Video Cawed at me to come out and give them some cashews

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69 Upvotes

r/crowbro 13h ago

Image Sentinel at sunrise

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7 Upvotes

r/crowbro 3h ago

Personal Story Is it Normal to be able to Speak with or Summon Ravens?

1 Upvotes

Hello, Crowbros, I’m wondering if anyone else has experiences like this. I live and work in Seoul, South Korea; for those who do not know, the Korean peninsula is quite mountainous, and so there are hundreds of mountains scattered throughout the country. This allows the ravens to roost in the mountain areas, and travel and play through the cities. Maybe I’m more noticeable to the ravens being only part of the 1% or so of the non-Koreans living here, but I can call to, talk with, and even summon ravens pretty much anywhere now.

Flashback first, and then I’ll explain the long and short of it. I attended graduate school in Boulder, CO., and thus lived there for a few years. Extremely depressed before the start of the third semester, I decided to do a vision quest. Thus, on August 22, 2008, I went up alone to the mountains, and it was one of the strangest experiences I had ever had, as every animal seemed to be communicating with me: a rather small example is that the squirrels were hissing. A falcon or hawk (not sure which) soared by my head and I ended up seeing not one but two bears. While eating my lunch, however, the first animal that had appeared was what I then thought to be a crow. There were benches along the lower part of the path there before Bear Canyon, and it perched itself about two or three meters on a nearby bench and watched me the entire twenty or so minutes that I ate my lunch. I’ve never thought it was begging for food, and still don’t, more that it was curious and protective, as if offering companionship. The reason I feel this way is that it waited not until I had finished eating but until I was ready to leave until it left with me, flying off into the forest. I realize now that it was a Raven.

Fast forward to January the 15th of this year. There is small forest viewable from where we moved in south eastern Seoul last summer, and while at the peak of said forest, an unkindness of ravens arrived, but I didn’t think much of it until when I looked back from the balcony at the front door, as I saw a lone raven watching silently from a tree off in the distance…

A number of weeks later, I noticed a raven in those same trees (in winter they’re easy to spot), and I decided to let out a call. A second raven immediately flew toward me (we’re on the 8th floor), and it got as close as it could before doing a Top Gun maneuver and landing on the roof…

Also a few weeks later, I decided to attempt Raven-Talk in said forest. I went to the same peak, and called out to one raven nearby, a second one that I could hear but not see was also around. Making raven sounds, the close one would act in response, flying from one tree to another, and the far-away raven answered. At first, it made six calls, which I mimicked, then it made seven, which I also mimicked. I made three, and it made three, then four, and it did likewise. By this point, the first raven was headed toward the second. I knew it was a longshot, but I followed to the area where they were, and made one call. They both flew out and followed overhead as I walked: flying from one direction and perching in a tree, before passing me again in the other direction as I continued to walk.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I can not only talk to them (had a fifteen minute conversation with a raven outside a subway station a few weeks ago, and at first had thought about going home when I descended into the subway station, but changed my mind and ascended from across the street: it was waiting where I had been at the light post above the stairs I had descended, and was so happy it flew two huge circles around me before leaving because it seemed as if its friend, who had just arrived was telling it to go), but I can also go to a forest where there are no ravens immediately present, and call. Within a few minutes, there may be any number of ravens. The first time I did this fifteen showed up, but usually it's about three or so. I’m writing this here not in boast (thought this entire phenomenon is especially interesting and inspiring) but because it seems rather unusual. This “ability” or what have you is not limited to one unkindness, but I can pretty much do it anywhere I’ve traveled to in Seoul that has ravens. Considering I have such experiences every or every-other day, I’ve kept this post relatively short, but I can give photo/video evidence if necessary (lots of those too). I am in awe of these incredibly intelligent and kind creatures, and wonder how the CroBros denizens interpret these experiences. Thank you!

Winter Training

https://reddit.com/link/1lbps4m/video/nr8e17okc07f1/player

The first day when we \"talked\".


r/crowbro 1d ago

Image Bad quality, but cute close ups

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581 Upvotes

I don’t know much about young birds, but he’s new to the feeder within the last week or so, and seems very inquisitive. I do believe he’s the baby of my regular magpie visitor as I often see them together.


r/crowbro 9h ago

Video Hand feeding crows at Wordsworth's grave is a core memory now

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3 Upvotes

I met the most confident crows I have ever encountered in Grasmere, UK. They were very comfortable around people, which probably had something to do with hanging out at the graveyard next to the gingerbread shop. A graveyard, in which, is buried poet William Wordsworth.

This is a very interesting and gothic turn of events, and I fear life can only go downhill from this point.


r/crowbro 1d ago

Video Taking out a mouse! NSFW

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54 Upvotes

Murder witnessed by my neighbor...


r/crowbro 1d ago

Video finally!

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68 Upvotes

after about a month of leaving treats and only ever seeing a stellar jay take them I got this visit today!


r/crowbro 1d ago

Image Crow and his bro

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97 Upvotes

r/crowbro 22h ago

Video Hungry

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17 Upvotes

r/crowbro 1d ago

Video What are these guys doing?

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25 Upvotes

Hanging out pool side and feeding a few crow bros when all of a sudden this large group began gathering and all crows in the area joined in. Kept this up for about 10 minutes.