I have been feeding 2 crows peanuts for a couple of years. This year they have their first brood. When they arrived at my house they brought other family members to protect their young from the malicious attacks of nesting mockingbirds, grackles, starlings, redwinged blackbirds and cowbirds. I have to admit those mockingbirds were vicious and fast.  I am assuming the accompanying crows were there for that purpose. I also assumed there would be a single offspring for some reason. Now, a good 5-6 weeks later I see a flock of 6 leading me to believe they had FOUR babies.  They are big and beautiful and LOUD.  Since they haven’t mastered opening the peanut shells they simply scream at their parents who seem overwhelmed. Hopefully they get it soon as I’m expecting complaints from neighbors, lol. I wish I knew where they slept at night. Another point of interest is that I live right on the beach so I get to watch these crows are get lessons from their parents on foraging in low tide.  Don’t know what they are eating but I think they are hunting small crabs.

I have a question about West Nile:  earlier in the fall I came across a red-tailed hawk in the woods, which appeared to have a broken leg.  I rescued the bird and brought it to a local hospital.  They determined that the bird had contracted West Nile.  They administered drugs, but it was too late and the bird died.  A few weeks later I was speaking to a rehabber, and he wanted to know if they took a blood sample to determine the state of the bird, because, he said, lead in the water can have the same impacts as West Nile.  Is this true?  Also, does your research group test birds that have died in order to determine if the birds do succumb to West Nile?  Could some of the crows be dying from lead in the water?

1. Over the last few years, our family seems to be stable and healthy.  The five who we believe are the nuclear family are joined on occasion by one, two or three other birds when the feed.  We have seen no dead crows in our four acres.  There are tall pines on 1.5 acres of ours and parkland on two other sides with tall trees.  We haven't observed the nest, but suspect it is in our patch. There has been no evidence of any disease in our crows (though other birds - cardinals, goldfinch and sparrows have shown eye disease, which killed a few). 2. We have a cooperative crew here, and the territories seem to be large enough (sq.miles) that fights have never been evident.

I live in Southern California and have a healthy population of crows that I see regularly above and around my property.  About a year and a half ago I first observed one crow with an injured leg - it was bloody and dangling.  I did not see how the injury occurred.  Over the course of a week or so the superficial injury healed but the leg continued to be unusable for this bird.  Because he is physically so different from the other crows he has become a recognizable individual and my partner and I refer to him as Gimpy.  We still see him frequently and though he continues to have one unusable leg he appears healthy in other respects.  He never lost his foot, so I suspect it is not the same foot disease that Dr. McGowan describes in this course.  It is clear that Gimpy has trouble perching with only one good leg, so he likes to hang out on my deck railing which allows him to rest on his belly and offers him a good vantage point across the valley near my house.  I have also noted that he is a bit of a loner.  I regularly have between 3 and 8 crows that forage in the grass under my bird feeders.  Gimpy keeps his distance from the other crows and only forages here when the others are not around.  I have not seen any direct aggression towards Gimpy nor between any of my crows. I often see the crows "dog fighting" with each other, especially when there are strong winds, but this seems more like play fighting and a way to develop aerial skills rather than aggression.  It's so much fun to watch!

I've never seen a crow here (Seattle) with a foot problem, but I wasn't aware of this problem until now. So, will keep my eyes open! I haven't seen aggression. Mostly, they are talking to each other, caw- cawing at each other. Or, seeming to care for each other. About a week ago at my feeder, I did see a Junco that seemed to have an injured foot, or at least was limping. Haven't seen it since, however.

We do not see many crows anymore here in Guelph,Ontario.One however  has become my neighbors best friend.I have never seen a crow with an injured leg& was surprised to learn they can survive such an injury.Very interesting lesson!!

1.  The crows in my area do seem to be healthy.  I must admit that before this course I didn't observe crows with the same attention I did "my" other birds.  I have never seen evidence of the foot disease shown in the video, nor of WNV ( perhaps due to local campaigns discouraging opportunities for mosquitoes to breed, like uncovered water containers ). 2.  I have not observed aggression between crows, more banding together to ward off a perceived threat, like with a hawk or owl.  I do feel that since I don't see large gatherings of crows in town where I live, the crows I do see are of a more family-oriented nature.

I am in Altanta, GA, and have not noticed any obvious illness in the crows. However, they tend to be quite wary of people so it's difficult to get close enough to do detailed observations. I have seen no evidence of foot disease, and no obvious decline because of West Nile, but we definitely do have the virus in our mosquitoes. As for aggression, the most I have seen is one crow chasing another. I have also seen groups of crows annoying red-tailed hawks, but that seems to be typical!

Right now I'm on Cape Cod, in E. Dennis. I've noticed a small flock of crows in my territory over the past several years. They seem to all get along and call each other from around the bogs and descend on any dead things washed up by the tide, or peanuts and fallen apples in my yard (very warily!). They are shy around humans. They seem well but I don't see them enough as a group to know. I've never noticed aggression between the American Crows up here. I've seen them harassing red-tailed hawks pretty frequently.

1. I’ve never witnessed any crows with foot disease or missing a foot. 2.I’ve never witnessed crows fighting with each other. Sometimes they’ll push each other out of the way to eat, but that’s it.

In Seattle Ihave noticed this foot disease but not for a couple of years. Agony to watch the crows with this problem. I have not witnessed aggression  between crows...will watch for it now.

Here in northern Alberta, West Nile hasn't been an issue. Nor have we seen any monopod crows. The narrowing of gene pools might explain why some territory's crows seem much larger than others?? So large around here that I thought they were ravens.

I'm wondering if there is any correlation or causality between the use of harder-than-aluminum leg bands and the rise of foot disease in the 1990s, especially as cuts or abrasions are thought to lead to foot disease. When did the new leg bands replace the old?    

There is a family group that frequents our backyard. I had not thought about such big birds being fledglings, but one day I grabbed my binoculars and realized the different behavior I was observing was that of parent/child. The group of 3 had increased to 5 or 6. Thanks to the course, I understood what I was seeing. I am puzzled by one that seems to whine sometimes by itself, sometimes in the group. I have tried to see if it is being picked on, or just being "that kid." Any insight? There is a leader who seems to lead the way, but everyone cooperates.

All the Crows that I have  been watching appear to be healthy . No evidence of foot disease when Perched their weight always looks  evenly disbursed  On both feet. I do not know about the West Nile Virus  for my area SC  haven’t been here very long .I have never witnessed any aggression among the flock they always seem to be watching out for each other ,when feeding there’s always a spotter  he’ll sit and tree and watch when ones done eating then another will come down and repeat process for the most part I do have some brave ones they  come on their own eat and  then go

I don't know anything about the crows in my area (west coast Canada/BC) having WNV. I have seen crows with avian pox, sometimes badly... some with a broken beak, but no missing legs. I have seen regression between crows which seems worse during nesting season when the crows seem extra-territorial.  There are some cases outside of that season as well... crows ganging up on one crow that gets pinned to the ground. I've certainly seen crows harassing other birds (ravens, red-tailed hawks, eagles) in the area. Sometimes a couple of ravens drop in for a visit where I go to feed my crows friend, as expected the crows are not pleased. The ravens mostly ignore the crows and get some food too; one time one crow went directly for a piece of food a raven already had (didn't seem like a smart move), I turned my back for just a second and that raven had that crow flipped on his back and pinned to the ground poking his beak into the crow's underside. At that point a number of crows started fiercely harassing the raven, the raven let the crow go and everyone was okay. I personally don't think the raven would have seriously hurt or killed that crow... maybe just giving him a warning of a kind.

Current local flock (TN South Cumberland Plateau) of 6 or more crows appear to be healthy.   I have not seen evidence of foot disease; however, I haven't been looking for it.   Crow population has been stable over the last decade.  I have not witnessed any crow aggression against another crow.

I saw a crow fight recently and these birds do not fool around. I have no idea what the offender did, but 6 crows were ganging up on one. I’m standing under the tree yelling and trying to break things up. The victim was able to fly to another tree but all 6 followed and continued to attack this crow.  Don’t know how it ended as I continued on my walk.  I wish I’d stayed.

The crows I see in my yard seem to be healthy and cooperative.

1. Everyone seems healthy. I've not seen any one-footed crows. (The Great Blue Heron that spends most of his time in the pond next to our beach house on the Fla panhandle is missing a foot, but I suspect an alligator. He has trouble perching in the trees, but otherwise seems able to fish, fly and court females.) Don't know about West Nile. 2. Last fall, there was a quite violent encounter, probably territorial. Here's my account from eBird, "Flying widely separated east to west. Lots of calling and flying to and fro over the entire ridge. Judging from an episode yesterday afternoon, there are rival crows in the area... a squad of “soldiers” in a tight, fast-moving flock came over the hill headed west. Then there was a ferocious hullabaloo about a quarter mile away that gave insight to the term “murder of crows”. The conflict moved to the yard diagonally behind mine with 5-6 crows diving at something. What finally escaped was another crow hotly pursued by the flock and driven all the way to the lake. [.5 mi away]" Another curious episode occurred early this spring. Four crows landed on the driveway where I had dumped the feeders to clean them... lots of sunflower seeds, peanuts and cherries. One bird, which was larger (by a good 10%) and shaggier than the others, was begging to be fed...shaking his wings like a fledgling. Very strange. They stamped their feet at him when he came too close, but they didn't drive him off either. As I recall, he didn't seem to understand how to gather and eat for himself. (I had a cowbird chick last summer who acted the same way, while the entire summer flock of 20 + birds chowed down around him.) The crows vacuumed up the peanuts and then left, as a group.

1–I have not seen any one legged crows nearby.  I have no knowledge of the local impact of West Nile. 2. I have only seen crows cooperating.  I did witness several crows trying to get a hawk out of the territory a few years ago. They kept flying into the hawk. After repeated attempts, one of the crows went at the hawk again, there was a tussle, and the crow fell straight down out of the sky.   This was taking place at a height above white pines.  I realize it’s life in the wild, but it was a little sad and shocking to witness.

The crows in my yard all seem very healthy, and they are always cooperative-a few times I have had a falcon fly into the yard and once there was a hawk, and when this has happened crows from other areas in the neighborhood seem to show up to help chase it off. Lately the American crows have been more aggressive with the fish crows, but I don’t know why. It may have something to do with the breeding season? A few years it got really cold in New Orleans (cold for New Orleans anyway), and I noticed a limping crow in the street being attacked by a stray cat. I picked the crow up and brought him inside, and the next day he seemed better, and I let him go. I think he was struggling with the foot injury and the cold though because he came back the next morning, and I fed him and kept him inside again (he seemed to like going under my desk), and that seemed to have done the trick because the next time I put him outside he flew away. I thought the injury had something to do with the cold weather, but now I wonder if it was something else. I don’t usually take  in injured wild animals, but nobody else would pick him up, and I couldn’t just watch him get attacked.

I live in southern Maine, and I recall reports of dead crows and jays due to WNV a few years back. The state has stopped responding to citizen reports of dead birds (it had encouraged these reports originally) because the data gathered was not useful. The state website reports the reason for this is because birds can fly and where they are found dead may not be where they contracted the disease. Sounds a little lame to me...

1.  Yes, our crows seem healthy, but a few days ago I did notice a one-footed crow perched on my bird bath.  In fact I was going to remark about it in an earlier lesson but forgot.  Not sure if it is foot disease; if it was it is not a clean injury.  Yes, WNV did have an impact on the population of crows here and people still monitor for dead crows. 2.  I haven't seen anything that I would call aggression, but I did see an argument that I thought was a parent child issue, but that's what I read into it and since none of the crows are marked, I am just projecting.  But they do seem to cooperate, walking around & foraging and watching out for each other.

Yes, the crows in our area appear healthy. However, last winter we had a crow with an injured foot.  You wouldn't know it was injured except he/she did not put any weight on it.  He was part of a family of 5 individuals.  I think they were the ones in the nest in our neighbor's tall white pine. The family did not nest in that site this year. Come to think of it I did not see much of them beginning in March. A good number of years ago (maybe 7 or 8) my husband found a young crow on the ground who could not manipulate either of its feet. We kept an eye on it, but when the local fox came around, we set the crow on top of a yew bush where it was supported in the boughs. We were hoping to see the mother come to its assistance.  Unfortunately, the crow was deceased the next morning.  It was odd in that it did not look sick externally - no wounds.