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FOOD AND FEEDING HABITSCrows are remarkably adaptable birds that will feed on a wide variety of foods, both natural and manmade, although some foods are favored over others and individual crows may have individual preferences. Some of the foods they have been observed to eat are as follows. All of the following are listed in various publications quoted in "The Life Histories of North American Jays, crows, and Titmice", Brent 1946: Insects (primarily beetles and their larvae and grasshoppers, locusts and crickets), spiders, millipeds, crustaceans, snails, reptiles, amphibians, wild birds and their eggs, poultry and their eggs, small mammals and carrion,May beetles, wireworms, caterpillars, grubs, cutworms, earthworms, clams, scallops, mussels, sea urchins, dead fish, marine invertebrates, dead seal, dead trout, , garbage, road kills (including dogs, cats, chickens, opossums, pigs and skunks) snakes, slaughter house waste, corn, sorghums, wheat, apples, almonds, beans, peas, figs, grapes, cherries, various wild fruits (including sumach, poison-ivy, poison-oak, bayberry, dogwood, sour gum, wild cherries, wild grapes, Virginia creeper, and pokeberry), meadow mice, star-nosed moles, short-tailed shrews, cranberry, juniper berries, smilax winterberry, nightshade berries, barley, corn, buckwheat, pumpkin or squash seeds. More recently, urban crows will enjoy feeding at garbage dumps, dumpsters at fast food restaurants, picnic areas, and any place where human food waste is available. I have personally observed a crow flying by overhead with an entire slice of pizza in its beak. (MJW)
FEEDING CROWS 
For the person who wishes to feed crows, any number of easily available foods will do. From personal observations, crows favor foods that have high fat or oil contents and items like bacon, cheese, suet, pizza, french fries, potato chips, corn chips, etc. are often taken in preference to all others. For routine feeding, a dry dogfood with pea sized nuggets seems to work very well. Foods like these have the advantage that, unlike sunflower or other seeds that crows will also eat, they do not attract squirrles (though the interactions of squirrles and crows are fascinating to watch). During the nesting season, eggs are a highly favored food. In the picture above, a crow is about to fly off with a hardboiled hen's egg. The bird first punched a hole in the egg with its beak, then grasped it as illustrated, and flew off with it with no apparent difficulty. In early May 2000, I personally observed a crow flying overhead carrying a garter snake that was about a foot long in its beak. A resident of an assisted living facility reported (May 2000) that the crows were eating all the fish out of their pond. Exactly how they did their fishing was not reported. YOUR OBSERVATIONS OF CROW FOOD CHOICES AND FEEDING BEHAVIOR ARE VERY WELCOME. Please sent observations to info@crows.net. Unless you indicate otherwise, your observations will be published on the website with your name included. (This section will be added to on a continuing basis. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed. Other parts of the site are also under construction. This site will be continually expanding as the Crows.net Project grows.) |
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