American Crow
Corvus brachyrhynchos

Conservation status | Attempts at extermination in past have included dynamiting of winter roosts. However, the crow remains abundant, and is increasingly adapting to life in towns and even cities. |
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Family | Crows, Magpies, Jays |
Habitat | Woodlands, farms, fields, river groves, shores, towns. Lives in a wide variety of semi-open habitats, from farming country and open fields to clearings in the woods. Often found on shores, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where the coastal population was formerly considered a separate species called “Northwestern Crow.” Avoids hot desert zones. Is adapting to towns and even cities, now often nesting in city parks. |
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Feeding Behavior
Opportunistic, quickly taking advantage of new food sources. Feeds mostly on the ground, sometimes in trees. Scavenges along roads and at dumps. Will carry hard-shelled mollusks high in air and drop them on rocks to break them open. Indigestible parts of food are coughed up later as pellets.
Eggs
4-6, sometimes 3-9. Dull blue-green to gray-green, blotched with brown and gray. Incubation is probably mostly or entirely by female, about 18 days. Young: Fed by both parents and sometimes by "helpers." Young leave nest about 4-5 weeks after hatching.
Young
Fed by both parents and sometimes by "helpers." Young leave nest about 4-5 weeks after hatching.
Diet
Omnivorous. Seems to feed on practically anything it can find, including insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, frogs, small snakes, shellfish, carrion, garbage, eggs and young of other birds, seeds, grain, berries, fruit.
Nesting
In courtship on ground or in tree, male faces female, fluffs up body feathers, partly spreads wings and tail, and bows repeatedly while giving a short rattling song. Mated pairs perch close together, touching bills and preening each other's feathers. Breeding pair may be assisted by "helpers," their offspring from previous seasons. Nest site is in tree or large shrub, 10-70' above the ground, usually in vertical fork or at base of branch against trunk. Rarely nests on ground or on building ledge. Nest (built by both sexes) is a large bulky basket of sticks, twigs, bark strips, weeds, and mud, lined with softer material such as grass, moss, plant fibers, feathers.
Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
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Migration
Permanent resident in many areas; withdraws in fall from northern regions, and flocks spend the winter in some areas a short distance south of the breeding range.

- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
See a fully interactive migration map for this species on the Bird Migration Explorer.
Learn moreSongs and Calls
Familiar caw-caw or caa-caa.Learn more about this sound collection.
How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the American Crow
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Climate threats facing the American Crow
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.