To feed the crows?

We have two crows who frequent our garden. The other day I heard a big splash so looked out the window - one of them was having a bath in the pond. Obviously this gave the other crow the idea of diving into the little bird bath, which looked ridiculous.

I would carry on, I'd love to do this!

But - put down a visual marker that will if used consistently, tell them that the food bar is open and the absence of it tells them the food bar is closed.

This could simply be a brightly coloured mat or cloth that you lay out on the floor - feed them close to it, put it away when the food is all gone and march on and DO NOT feed them again.

Just keep repeating this and they will learn that food only happens when the marker is visible, and hopefully this will avoid them getting frustrated. Frustration tends to lead to unwanted behaviours.

The real risks are that, not knowing the criteria to get food, they get frustrated, which pushes them to get closer, intercept you, perhaps start to vocalise at you or even fly at you... and then perhaps start to do this to people with a similar silhouettes or similar clothing.

I like to feed the wildlife. There are a lot of magpies round our way. Unfortunately my cat finds magpies very tasty 😋
I generally go down to the local park with food scraps and feed the ducks, geese and the swans. I always try to save a few crumbs for the pigeons, who no unfortunately hold the title of vermin, and get a really raw deal 🥺

Love it but watch out OP: do you know what the collective noun for crows is…

Love this

Crows are extremely intelligent but they are also a huge predator of songbirds and eggs. They are amazing animals and are one of the apex avian predators in the UK. They do not need feeding by humans. My neighbour started feeding them and we went from 1 pair, to over 40 crows in 2 weeks. They all started nesting around and we lost all the song birds, swifts and ground birds (we are rural Yorkshire). It took a lot of 'scaring' to get rid of them and restore a natural balance of birds.

I feed the crows in my local park and they follow me every time I walk through. They're getting braver and a couple of them will sit within a metre of me, but we're not yet at the 'full trust' level I'd like to be.
My dream is to walk through the park with one riding on my shoulder.

I'm trying to get my crows to mimic me, I feed them when I walk my dog, they follow us around and every time I throw a handful of peanuts & kibble I say 'morning crows'. My dream is that they'll start saying it back.

I'm surprised you fell down a rabbit hole and found crows. I think it was a crow hole.

This is my goal for 2026! Befriend the crows.

Crows before bros and all that.

I’m with you on this. You MUST feed the crows. 🐦‍⬛

Absolutely reasonable.

We feed the jackdaws in our garden. They have particular times of day that they arrive. In the spring, they bring their multiple (noisy) children. Such clever birds.

Ah I have a cat actually, probably shouldn't.

Oh I want to do this too! Will it work with the ones in my garden?

Amazing!

I ADORE crows! 🐦‍⬛ I love Balham station as there are loads there in the trees out yonder and one or 2 always seem to be monitoring things on the fence by the platform. Incredible creatures. I painted a picture of one which hangs on my wall.

Haha, that's genius. I love crows and other corvids. There's a rookery in the trees opposite my house, been there for at least 50 years I think. Any time the local buzzard gets too close, the crows come out and give it a good hiding.

My M (very religious) feeds the birds in her garden but stopped because the crows and pigeons were also using the feeders ("those nasty big birds"). I told her that God made and loves crows and pigeons too. It did not go down well.

They also do a cracking job of cleaning up roadkill - lots of pheasants and game birds around here, the roads would be awash without the foxes, crows and raptors. Most efficient. Give them a carrion reward for fixing potholes and they'd save the highways department a fortune.

@BadgernTheGarden as a small child, I watched a hen trying to protect her chicks from a crow. She had the chicks under her wings and the crow lunged to the left, then to the right until, one by one the chicks dropped and were taken. Other crows waited close at hand. I was mesmerised and horrified.

I am also fascinated by the birds. My father pointed out a mother crow showing her young how to flick over sticks and clumps of grass to get insects. They learn from each other. They used to use the scarecrows around the farm as perches.

My brother feeds a crow called 'Charlie'. He calls out to Charlie in the morning and Charlie 'caws' back. Charlie's favourite food is dried cat food. The farm cats hate him, and his murder of friends.

The crows know me and the dogs too. I only feed them (some dog biscuits) when I'm walking one and not the other for reasons, so they even recognise the dogs, despite dogs looking very similar.

It's best not to interfere with nature in this way. It interferes with their natural way of living & surviving.

The birds don't belong to you, they are not your 'friends'

Yes corvids are highly trainable but that doesn't make it the right thing to do.

There is a guy in USA who has trained a crow to attack people wearing MAGA hats.

I find it hard to recognise them, so they are probably doing better than me, although there is one (of a pair) who has a disability (a damaged claw) so I recognise the pair together. We also have at least one with some white feathers, so that one is easy to spot.

Our crows hate us and I don't really know why. They tend to scream at us from the trees if we are in the garden, we have had minor encounters with baby crows on the ground, they seem to leave the nest before they can fly competently, but we always keep our distance from them. They are extremely protective of the chicks!

What do you feed them on they are scavengers and mainly meat eaters I thought, other birds eggs and chicks in the spring.

Very similar situation here after reading that thread!
I walk my dogs around a park with a big lake, most people like to feed the swans and ducks, after that thread I decided to start feeding the crows instead.

I initially fed them when I’d got about halfway round the lake but after a few weeks they’d started waiting for me at earlier points. Now it’s a few minutes after I’ve gotten out of my car. They’re either recognising me or my dogs, and they’re not as timid near the dogs now, I know it’s the same crows because two of them have distinctive damaged feathers.