I really want some crow friends!

[Thingsthatgo]

I am becoming obsessed with crows! There are a few that hang around near my house (we live near the town centre, so pretty urban). I have started carting around peanuts with me and I feed them whenever I see them.
Now they are beginning to be a bit more brave and also seem to hang around in my front garden. Is it possible that they recognise me?
Does anyone have crow friends that can give me tips to encourage them?
We have many many seagulls around here, so if I leave food out I think it will just attract seagulls/foxes/rats!

My crows sit on the garden fence waiting for breakfast everyday. Corvids are my favourite birds.

@Inextremis those are rooks 😁

A lady was feeding the crows in our local park, and one day she forgot to bring the food and they dive-bombed her... so be consistent for your own safety! 😄

I used to have a pet crow, raised him from a fledgling. When he was about six months old he flew off. I hope he’s ok. I do get crows who sit on my roof and caw like mad at me, I like to think one of them is him.

I’ve sporadically thrown food down when they’re there but they’ve never come down to eat it so I’ve given up. Maybe they have me marked as the crow kidnapper woman who might keep you in an aviary if she gets her hands on you! So they keep their distance. They seem to caw at me more than dh.

I want to tame a robin - there's one who comes to our garden and waits and watches very closely while I put seed out, so I'm developing a routine of shaking the seed tub and doing a special whistle... patience, patience...

I did tame one of our many visiting pigeons, but he started to stare through the window at me like Feathers McGraw, doing a sad 'Oooh... oooh...' for me to hand-feed him... I couldn't stand it any more... 🐦

You must read Corvus by Esther Woolfson. A wonderful biography about how she grew a relationship with crows, and also very informative about crows and their lives.

I'm trying to make friends with the crows but not having much success so far.

In my old house (we moved last Feb) I had been getting somewhere, every morning I went into the garden and said 'good morning crows' and threw them a hand full of cereal.

They were becoming more interested until 1 day when DH was mowing the lawn he found a dead crow at the end of the garden. After that then they all disappeared.

In this house I haven't seen them in the back garden, but they're sometimes on the road out front so again I'm saying a cheery hello.

I'll invest in some peanuts and see what happens.

Good luck crow friends!

My first thought was the wonderful Moira Rose in Schitt's Creek starting in 'The Crows have Eyes'.

Thank you! That's really helpful and much more accurate than the rhyme.

Many thanks for that, just bought it for my Kindle. Also @JayeAshe - thanks for the ID, I get very confused about all the different types!

Try Crowsaholic on Instagram, also Loki The Raven.

They are super intelligent I'd love one as well

Im obsessed with Corvids (the group that crows belong to - others are jackdaws, ravens, rooks, magpies etc )

They are incredibly intelligent & will learn to recognize you.

I've found that they like protein foods eg chicken or other meat. If you feed them in the same place you may find you are rewarded with 'gifts' eg shiny things, metal etc. There's some evidence that they even understand they are 'trading' these objects with you for food (this is a very high level of intelligence that few mammals let alone birds possess)

I’ve had quite a few gifts. Most very pecked and flattened out. I’ve had flower petals too, this I have no idea why. I’ve watched them put them on the steps where I stand when I feed them.

If there is cheese, mine always pick the cheese!

I don’t know if you can see a post on Bluesky if you’re not signed up for it, but I loved this thread about this exact subject from a few weeks ago.

I feed them peanuts on a walk I do by a river. They know me and fly down to the fence as soon as they see me- usually 2 of them but sometimes 1 or 3. They sit next to me on a bench and will take the peanuts from my hand, filling their beaks- they can get about 16 in at once. Then they fly off into the grass and bushes and dig holes and bury them for later and then come back. If I am talking/messaging on my phone while sitting on the bench, one of them taps me very gently on the shoulder with his/her beak to remind me about the peanuts. In the summer they scour the river bank for winkles in shells and throw the shells onto the pavements to break them so they can eat the winkles. They are very clever.

Our neighbour has two that stand on her patio and watch yhe dog eating his food through thr French doors. When he has finished, if he's left any they tap on the window for her to put the bowl outside for them. If he eats it all, they don't bother tapping.

I was out walking once and one of them landed on my head and pecked and pecked.

It was quite shocking.

And I am sure that I read quite recently that they remember for twenty years and pass grudges on from generation to generation.

I don't have any crow friends sorry, but I've found that I'm beginning to watch them closer as I get older, and they never fail to make me smile. The way they hop around and look like they take little bird steroids. I've also really enjoyed reading your thread @Thingsthatgo and all the replies from people who do have crow friends.

Ha ha ha I was about to say this! Often wonder what happened to that poster. If you're reading this - we're still waiting to hear if you're OK!!

I remembered an ex MNer SarahStratton who had a tame pet crow Mortimer who later turned out to be Morticia iirc.

Mortimer used to swear at the neighbours and in a bad mood one day degrouted her utility room tiles and walked round the outside of a pitched tent in the garden and made loads of little vertical slashes with his beak in the tent material.

I don't mean to sound cruel, but when it comes to corvids be careful what you wish for!

We have a huge (protected) tree that overhangs our garden, and a large flock of jackdaws. They are absolutely horrid. They make an absolutely unbelievable amount of mess (bird poo plastering everything), particularly in nesting time. In the spring when they're on the nests they wake us up every morning at dawn with the most horrendous noise that sounds like they're choking to death. The rest of the year they're noisy at dusk / when they get disturbed by something.

They make it very hard to feed other birds we have in the garden, knocking off and breaking bird feeders etc. so they can hoover up the whole contents. They also raid other nests when they can get to them (starlings, house sparrows, blackbirds) - completely natural but it is sad to see.

I know they're only trying to survive but they really are a nuisance. I think the problem is there's too many of them in the area because they have nothing to control the population size, and we get the brunt of it.

"I know they're only trying to survive but they really are a nuisance. I think the problem is there's too many of them in the area because they have nothing to control the population size, and we get the brunt of it."

There's a similar imbalance where I live too. I hate seeing corvids raid the songbirds' nests in the spring. In the winter, when I put out a feeding station with fat balls in, the magpies demolish, in the space of a day, something that should be lasting weeks.

Got this today, placed very nicely by their feeding place.