Identification
Height is around 17.5 inches (like standing a laptop on its end)
Mass: 0.7 – 1.4 lbs
Length: 16 – 21 in. (Adult)
Wingspan: 2.8 – 3.3 ft.
Habitat
American Crows are highly adaptable and will live in any open place that offers a few trees to perch in and a reliable source of food. Regularly uses both natural and human-created habitats, including farmland, pasture, landfills, city parks, golf courses, cemeteries, yards, vacant lots, highway turnarounds, feedlots, and the shores of rivers, streams, and marshes. Crows tend to avoid unbroken expanses of forest, but do show up at forest campgrounds and travel into forests along roads and rivers. Avoids deserts.
Nesting
Crows typically hide their nests in a crotch near the trunk of a tree or on a horizontal branch, generally towards the top third or quarter of the tree. They prefer to nest in evergreens but will nest in deciduous trees when evergreens are less available.
Both members of a breeding pair help build the nest. Young birds from the previous year sometimes help as well. The nest is made largely of medium-sized twigs with an inner cup lined with pine needles, weeds, soft bark, or animal hair. Nest size is quite variable, typically 6-19 inches across, with an inner cup about 6-14 inches across and 4-15 inches deep (diameter of med. pizza).
Behavior
American Crows are highly social birds, more often seen in groups than alone. In addition to roosting and foraging in numbers, crows often stay together in year-round family groups that consist of the breeding pair and offspring from the past two years. The whole family cooperates to raise young. Winter roosts of American Crows sometimes number in the hundreds of thousands. Often admired for their intelligence, American Crows can work together, devise solutions to problems, and recognize unusual sources of food. Some people regard this resourcefulness and sociality as an annoyance when it leads to large flocks around dumpsters, landfills, and roosting sites; others are fascinated by it. American Crows work together to harass or drive off predators, a behavior known as mobbing.
Offspring
Clutch Size:3-9 eggs
Number of Broods:1-2 broods
Egg Length:1.4-1.9 in (3.6-4.7 cm)
Egg Width:1.0-1.2 in (2.6-3.1 cm)
Incubation Period:16-18 days
Nestling Period:20-40 days
Egg Description: Pale bluish-green to olive green with blotches of brown and gray toward the large end.
Condition at Hatching: Naked except for sparse tufts of grayish down, eyes closed, clumsy.
Predators
Adult crows have few predators—eagles, hawks, owls, and human hunters—with humans being their main predators.
The causes of death of young crows still in the nest include starvation, adverse weather, and attacks by raccoons, great horned owls, and other animals.
Mortality in the first year is about 50 percent, but adults live six to ten years.
Diet
The American crow is omnivorous. It will feed on invertebrates of all types, carrion, scraps of human food, seeds, eggs, and nestlings, stranded fish on the shore, and various grains. American crows are active hunters and will prey on mice, frogs, and other small animals. They usually feed on the ground.
They eat many insects, including some crop pests, and also eat aquatic animals such as fish, young turtles, crayfish, mussels, and clams.
Fun Facts
Crows don’t regularly visit feeders, but you can attract them to your backyard if you offer a mix of trees, open space, and food. Peanuts left in an open place are a good attractant. Crows are also attracted by compost, garbage, or pet food that the birds can feed on.