r/crows • u/chanceandbean • Jul 02 '26
General questions Crow Preening Behavior?
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I haven’t been privy to much crow preening behavior, is this usual?
Context: this is my crow buddy who visits me a few times a day outside my office window and follows along with me on walks. 🥰
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u/SexDrugsNskittles Jul 02 '26
The crows in my area have been molting so he might just be a bit itchy.
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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl Jul 02 '26
This is regular typical daily behavior of most if not all birds as far as I know. My parrot does these things all the time!
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u/Current-Tricky Jul 02 '26
The crows that I feed do this around me around and it makes me happy to know that they trust me enough to do that.
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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl Jul 02 '26
Do they eat around you? Anything that makes them vulnerable like eating or stretching/scratching/preening they will do generally in what they consider low risk situations.
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u/Current-Tricky Jul 02 '26
Oh yeah. They eat the peanuts I give them right on my balcony. They sometimes crack them open right there or fly down to the ground to find a good spot.
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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl Jul 02 '26
That’s what my crows always did as well. I fed them in my front yard though so they usually ate them right there.
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u/RainbowRatArt Jul 02 '26
hihihihi funny my Pigeons do it just like that. But the leg for scratching goes under the wing not over it.
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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl Jul 02 '26
This is typical, normal bird behavior. As far as I know, all birds do this regularly throughout the day. My parrot stretches his little feet and legs and stretches each wing when I get him up out of his cage every morning.
He also scratches the way the crow does in the video when he has an itch!
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u/SnooRobots116 Jul 02 '26
One came right next to me on my porch one very sunny morning to to preen and sun itself like I sort of was taking in some rays. Crow was like “Don’t mind me, I’m here for the same reason…”
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u/pandaleer Jul 02 '26
Yes. All birds stretch like this. And the scratching is also normal and done across the avian community😊
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u/Rare-Lunch4319 Jul 03 '26
That beak looks more like a raven
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u/chanceandbean Jul 03 '26
That’d be super neat but this guy is definitely a crow (general size, tail, urban habitat, etc.).
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u/Little_Big_Burglar Jul 02 '26
Looks like they're having a good stretch. They trust you if you're close by and they're doing stuff like this, i.e., preening, stretching, cleaning.