We have a good feeling about most birds, and consider them to be a friend to man. Yet when it comes to the crow, we have quite a different attitude. We know that the farmer sets up “scarecrows,” and hopes to keep these birds as far away as possible. While crows are somewhat helpful as scavengers, they are really quite destructive. To begin with, crows are expert thieves. They not only steal the eggs in other birds nests, but they often carry off the young! They even invade barnyards in search of hens’ eggs, and will malice off with newly hatched chicks if they can catch them. The worst complaint against crows is the destruction they do to crops. They simply eat up so many crops, and destroy so many cornfields, that the farmer considers crows one of his worst enemies.

The crow is about 48 centimetres, entirely black. including the feet and bill. He is an all-around bird with strong wings, and he can put his stout bill to many uses. His appetite, as has been indicated, is very good and he’ll eat fruits, seeds, grains, birds’ eggs, insects, or fresh meat which he kills himself. Since he can live on so many different kinds of foods he has no need to migrate, although some crows do move southward in winter.

The crow has exceptionally keen sight and hearing. It is usually seen in flocks, large or small, because a flock of crows can detect danger better than a single crow could. Crows are supposed to be very shrewd, but several clever ways have been devised to take advantage of them. Crows are devoted to their young. So they will often come close in response to an imitation of a young crow’s hoarse, rattling cry. They also sometimes attack hawks and owls, so stuffed hawks and-owls are used as decoys to trap them.

Crows breed in the early spring, usually building their nests at least 9 metros high in trees. At this season the flocks are scattered. Soon after the young can fly, the flocks gather in colonies. In winter, all the crows of a wide area may gather together every night in some woodland to roost. They go forth in the morning to seek food and return at sundown.

The number of crows that may gather together in a roost can run as high as 200,000 to 300,000 birds! And somehow, despite all the efforts of men to destroy them, crows continue to increase in number.