Corrine

My story could be of coincidence, or that my local crow family really does recognize my face, or is super creative. I normally put out food for my crows in my front yard, but as it was nesting season and so many eagles and hawks were flying around I decided to put the food in my backyard. My backyard is full of very old coniferous trees, so it kind of has a canopy feel when you are underneath their cover. I thought it would be a better place to put the food, because I figure it would be really risky of an eagle to land on the ground that close to my home. I knew though the crow family isn't used to this being their food location. They normally land on telephone lines in front of my house to wait for food or look at the landscape. I saw a couple land and went outside. From my backyard you can see a part of the telephone wire. So, I had the plate of food in my hand and I make tongue clicking sounds to get their attention. They turned to look and I started walking towards my tree canopy area while making the sounds. None followed, but I decided to try again. Turns out I had to do it about 3 times, walking the same path using the same vocalizations. Sure enough though, one decided to follow me. He flew off the front yard telephone lines onto my roof so he could see what I was up to. I went inside to peer out my window and see what the crow did. Of course, he went over to examine what I had put out, then alerted his family.

As I have always been fascinated by crows when I moved into my home about a year ago, I noticed many crows in the neighborhood. It was only a month after moving into our place that a bald eagle flew low overhead and my husband and I were outside. Of course all the nearby crows surrounded our yard and began to caw and drive away the eagle. During this episode a fledgling fell out of a tree in our yard! Honestly, even though I loved crows at this time I had no idea what fledglings looked like, and we thought the eagle injured this bird when they were trying to drive him away from their territory. We called the local Fish & Wildlife phone number and they told us to take him to a local organization that specializes in helping injured animals. We did so, only to discover it was a very healthy fledgling! While we were relieved, we were also sad that we had taken a healthy bird away from the nest site and hoped the parents would take the baby back. We released him in our backyard where the nest site was and watched him hop around. You could tell this little bird was on the verge of flying because they kept trying to do so and was a pretty decent size. The next day, I went into my backyard to make sure no predators had gotten to them and all of the family members cawed from the treetops as I went further into our yard. I realized the chances were their little fledgling was probably on the ground and why they were cawing at me more harshly than usual. So, I went back inside. After the incident above, I started to research crows and other birds more over time. Also, I began to feed the crows around my house and noticed them coming back every single day. It's been a year and this crow family is still living in my yard and surrounding yards. They regularly forage in my yard and neighbors, and it is amazing how they seem to stick together as a family unit. The crows will drive off new crows and seem very territorial. They definitely rely on look-outs while the other ones feed on the ground. This last spring they welcomed a new fledgling into their family and it was truly fascinating to see the shift in family dynamics and the new birds first week of flying. During fledgling season I noticed how quiet the crows become, they are so protective I noticed! Compared to crows I see the little birds travel in larger groups than crows. They feed differently and are much quieter. I am interested to find out more information how other birds do their daily tasks. Another thing I notice is if a crow needs help, the other local crows show up.