Guide to North American Birds

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Crows are thought to be among our most intelligent birds, and the success of the American Crow in adapting to civilization would seem to confirm this. Despite past attempts to exterminate them, crows are more common than ever in farmlands, towns, and even cities, and their distinctive caw! is a familiar sound over much of the continent. Sociable, especially when not nesting, crows may gather in communal roosts on winter nights, sometimes with thousands or even tens of thousands roosting in one grove.
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.
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.
Crows are thought to be among our most intelligent birds, and the success of the American Crow in adapting to civilization would seem to confirm this. Despite past attempts to exterminate them, crows are more common than ever in farmlands, towns, and even cities, and their distinctive caw! is a familiar sound over much of the continent. Sociable, especially when not nesting, crows may gather in communal roosts on winter nights, sometimes with thousands or even tens of thousands roosting in one grove.

Photo Gallery

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.
Learn more about these drawings.

Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

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.

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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

Songs and Calls

Familiar caw-caw or caa-caa.
Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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 Near You

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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.

American Crow In the News More News

Science

What Is a Songbird, Exactly?

Turns out it’s about more than just carrying a tune.

Science

Birds May Hold Clues to the 'Bizarre' Life Cycle of Brood X Cicadas

Billions of cicadas will emerge in the eastern United States this spring, presenting a once-in-a-17-year opportunity for scientists to understand how they shape populations of birds and other species.

Culture

Margaret Atwood Talks Bird Lore To Celebrate the ‘Bedside Book of Birds’

The reissue of this love letter to birds, by the noted author's late partner Graeme Gibson, delves into the varied intersections between human and avian lives.

Explore Similar Birds

Northwestern Crow

Latin:  Leucolia violiceps

Chihuahuan Raven

Latin:  Corvus cryptoleucus

Tamaulipas Crow

Latin:  Corvus imparatus

Fish Crow

Latin:  Corvus ossifragus

Brown Jay

Latin:  Psilorhinus morio

Pileated Woodpecker

Latin:  Dryocopus pileatus

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