American Crow
Corvus brachyrhynchos
eBird gives this description of the American Crow: This is the common crow over much of the U.S. and Canada. Most easily identified by voice, a familiar “caw,” often repeated. Common in any open habitats, including fields, open woodlands, marshes, and cities, thriving around humans. Very social, usually seen in flocks, sometimes numbering in the hundreds or even thousands. Aggressive, sometimes seen chasing away hawks and owls. Separated from ravens by smaller size, smaller bill, shorter tail, and shorter, broader wings. Compare with Fish Crow, which is extremely similar in appearance, and best separated by voice. Includes the species formerly known as Northwestern Crow. All About Birds provides this additional descriptive information: 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; 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.
I watched my first American Crow shortly after noon on December 28, 2021. I had been in New Braunfels that morning running errands and, as I returned home (by way of HW 46 and Rudeloff Rd., due to construction on FM725) a little after 1 pm, I saw a large black bird on a powerline close to where the railroad track crosses Rudeloff Rd. near its intersection with HW 78. I stopped to take a closer look and soon noticed another large black bird in a nearby tree. The looked very much like Ravens, but upon returning home and studying the pictures I took, I determined that they were American Crows.
Cool Facts About The American Crow From All About Birds:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Despite its tendency to eat roadkill, the American Crow is not scavenger specialist, 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The oldest recorded wild American Crow was at least 17 years 5 months old when it was photographed in Washington State. A captive crow in New York lived to be 59 years old.