Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Intelligent American Crow

By: Tom Berg

American Crows are large, common birds that can be found throughout most of the United States and even much of Canada during the breeding season. One area that they really avoid is the dry, desert regions of the southwest USA. They don’t even fly south to Mexico during the winter.

The American crow is jet black in color. Its eyes, legs and beak are black, too. Adult crows are twice as large as songbirds like robins and blue jays, with a length from beak to tail of 16-21 inches and a wingspan of nearly 40 inches. They have a loud call that sounds like “Caw, Caw” which they use to alert others to nearby danger, and also to harass birds of prey like owls and hawks.

Crows will eat almost anything, and they are often seen eating waste grain in agricultural fields. They can be a pest to farmers because they have learned that if they uproot newly sprouted cornstalks, they will find the stalk growing out of a corn kernel. So they break off the corn shoot and eat the kernel of corn!

But crows are also known to eat a wide variety of other things, including insects, worms, fruits, berries, nuts, fish and clams, among other things. They are also nest predators and eat the eggs of other birds. The crows are so big that they kill young nestling birds and eat them, too. They have even been known to follow songbirds to their nests so they can raid them.

These large birds are very intelligent, too. In fact, they are considered to be one of the smartest birds on Earth. They have even been compared to chimpanzees when it comes to intelligence. Crows have been known to use tools to solve problems and gather food. They have been observed using sticks to probe holes in search of food, and they have even been seen carrying a small cup of water over to some dry food to moisten it before eating.

Crows are fascinating birds – we just wish they were a little quieter!

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