The Intelligent American Crow
Smart Crows, Strategizing, Tool Use, and Crow Families
The American Crow is known for feasting on garbage, carrion, crops, and livestock, but these intelligent birds eat pests, clean up road kill, and raise big families.
The American Crow is not a particularly well-loved bird. Crows are renowned for getting into garbage, eating carrion and road kill, destroying crops, killing livestock, and being a noisy nuisance. Some consider them a bad omen. But crows are not the bad luck birds we think they are. Try to think of them in a different way: they clear up garbage and road kill for free, eat insect pests, and alert us to the presence of owls and other interesting crow predators. American Crows look out for each other, they are good parents, they plan for the future, and they are very intelligent.
The American Crow is one of the corvids (Family: Corvidae), a group that also includes Ravens, Rooks, Jays, Jackdaws, Magpies, Nutcrackers, and others. The shiny black American Crow is common all over North America except in the extreme northern and southern regions. Formerly prevalent in the countryside, crows have followed people to the cities and thrive there in large numbers.
Crows mate for life; parents cooperatively build nests and raise their young, the male bringing food to the female on the nest. Juvenile crows often stay with their parents for years and even help feed subsequent nestlings. The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds (Christopher Perrins, Firefly Books, 2003) describes large American crow families comprising a breeding pair and the offspring of six seasons.
Crows are intelligent: they hide food for the future, and their use of tools for obtaining food is now well known. It seems they can even manufacture tools, such as wires bent at one end to make hooks (Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds, above). Stories abound about crows using clever strategies to manipulate objects or other creatures, or to take advantage of circumstances.
Crows are noisy. A large group of crows all joining together can make quite a racket, and they tend to do this at unfortunate times, such as the predawn hours when most humans would rather be asleep. Thus, crow roosts - large flocks of crows gathered together for the night - are rather unpopular. But if you notice a group of crows making a big fuss during the day, there might be something interesting going on. See if you can spot what they are fussing about: it might be an owl or some other predator.
Why do American Crows gather in roosts at night in the fall, winter, and early spring? No one is really sure - it might be for protection, food, or warmth, or to share information. Whatever the reason, a roost of hundreds, even thousands, of crows at sunset is a memorable sight.
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Enjoy some Amazing Crow Stories.
Read a first-hand story of a pet crow: Ralph, an Unforgettable Pet Crow
Find out more about American Crows.
