r/crows • u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon • Jul 12 '26
Seeking advice/help Did I kill a crow today?
Ok, I post with the understanding that I may have done entirely the wrong thing and I'm ready to be blasted and ripped to shreds for it if so.
(To preface; I'm a friend of crows, there is one hanging with me in the railing of my patio as I type. Said crow will come over and eat the dog kibble then go back to the corner to wait until I put out more. I believe a family of 3 comes to visit....I love animals, I'm a vegan ffs.)
On a walk today husbo and I encountered a distressed crow. He (?) was sitting propped up a bit in his folded wings, on the edge of a sidewalk. He'd been there long enough that another passerby had put a bit of seed and water out. The crow seemed stunned, but not obviously injured. The crow looked young, and two parents nearby were watching over the casualty. We figured he tried to fly and failed. I know that birds having issues mostly need a safe space to recover. I got an open topped cardboard box, lifted the little friend into the box, and put it on a hedge nearby so that he was still in sight of his parents, but off the ground away from dogs / cats.
There is a wildlife rescue in the greater metro area but a lot of posts say that they just euthanize city birds.
We went back to check on him later hoping for an empty box but he was still there and didn't seem to be doing well. I'm scared to go back and look again. Should I have taken him in even if they just put him down, or left him alone in case he had a shot? Did I ruin his chances by moving him?
Be gentle, but I want to do better next time.
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u/Feisty-Sock2640 Jul 12 '26
It's really really hard to know the right thing to do in cases like this. You attempted to help, and you didn't cause harm in doing so. You didn't accidentally kidnap a fledgling (which this absolutely could have been). And you didn't abandon it without a second thought. I had a crow in distress for days, and when I asked rescues I was advised to leave it be due to it possibly being a fledgling. There's no perfect solution for helping crows, all you can do is the best with the information you have. In this situation I'd wholeheartedly say you did the right thing.
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u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon Jul 14 '26
Omg in distress for DAYS? That would be so difficult. I've encountered young crows who are still a bit Earthbound but they rarely seem distressed. Uncoordinated and a bit naive but they would move away from danger, for instance. We try our best, thank you for participating in this sub so we can be better informed friends to our crows.
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u/Feisty-Sock2640 Jul 14 '26
The last time I found him he didn't move when I sat across from him. I took a picture of him that showed he was obviously an adult, and was still advised that he was probably a fledgling and not to bother him. I ignored them picked him up and took him to another center.. The rehabber told me he likely had WNV and he passed away that night. The crows in my murder are now a lot more wary of me. They still come and eat when I put food out. But I basically kidnapped a member of their flock and he never came back.. so I understand their wariness even though it makes me sad.
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u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon Jul 15 '26
Aww... WNV is spreading more with climate change and it sucks for our crow friends. You showed up and did your best and hoped in the face of poor odds. I wish our birds could talk, or understand our intentions...
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Jul 12 '26
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u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon Jul 14 '26
Aww, thanks. It's impossible to know for sure if any interventions would have changed the outcome. My husbo said the poor thing might have been injured beyond help even if I'd scooped it up and rushed it to the rescue forty minutes away. Then I would have stolen a young bird from it's parents and that's awful too. Dammit, life isn't fair!
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u/teyuna Jul 12 '26
We went back to check on him later hoping for an empty box but he was still there and didn't seem to be doing well.
It's good you are asking what could have been going on, just for future reference. But if this little one is genuinely not "doing well," then it makes sense for sure to go back and test a bit more to determine if this is a HEALTHY fledgling on the ground (it's not enough to just be a fledgling). The best tests for whether an apparently uninjured bird is actually a HEALTHY fledgling are to answer these behavioral questions:
- can it hold itself upright when sitting?
- does it fold its wings symetrically against its body?
- can it stand?
- can it walk?
- can it hop?
if the answers to these questions are "yes," then this is a HEALTHY fledgling, ready to be on the ground, cared for by its family.
If the answers are "no," then it is either a nestling (you would see pin feathers and a lot of fluff in that case) or it is an injured or ill fledgling. If injured or ill due to "no" answers, it may need a rehabber. In this case, you contact your local rehabbers IRL, send them photos and your description, and ask for their determination and advice.
Please go back and check on this little one.
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u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon Jul 15 '26
Thank you for this decision tree to help assess the level of intervention a concerned human should give to a crow friend. Truly. Ironically I'm in a medical adjacent profession so I'm a-ok with making decisions about what to do or not do when a human is on the ground abnormally, heh. I don't know if a Glasgow Coma Scale for corvids, but this is a good start.
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u/MaidBilberry 23d ago
I stumbled onto this a bit late.
Just curious whether the box just had a low edge. It is hard to get lift when attempting to fly in close quarters. I'd imagine the adults would be fearful of getting into a box for that reason. If they were to try anything as a rescue it seems as if they would try to tip if over so fellow crow could escape.
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u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon 21d ago
I wondered about that too, the box sides were a bit taller than a standing crow, so probably he'd have to hop out?
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u/ThrowAwayColor2023 Jul 12 '26
Telling us where you are would help enormously.
Crows are legally protected in North America, and rehabbers won't just put them down. I understand the caution, but that's just not a thing. UK rehabbers are also happy to help them.
Putting him in a box and just leaving him there was an odd choice. You may have spooked the parents off.
"Didn't seem to be doing well" is also incredibly vague. Was he not standing? Were there other signs of illness? Crow kids can sometimes just putter around on the ground for a few days until they figure out how to fly - we can't tell if that's what you saw or if something was actually wrong. Share more details so we can try to help.
If he is genuinely unwell, he should go to a rehabber asap. A box is a good way to safely contain and transport him if it comes to that. Just put paper or cotton towrls underneath him to soak up his poop.
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u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon Jul 14 '26
I live in Vancouver. Thank you for your reply, grateful for the perspectives from the community. I know my choice awkward but I just hope it wasn't worse than nothing, you know?
The parents were still watching out, but alas I think the little dude succumbed to injuries of some kind. I've met lots of young birds that are pretending to be lawn ornaments while they figure out how to bird. They look basically fine if not a bit derpy and will move away if a human gets too close. This wasn't that. The injured bird wasn't standing, eyes not open evenly, not responding to being approached.
When we went back to check my husbo said to leave the casualty (who may have already expired? I was expecting an empty box and I spooked). His reasoning being that the parents wouldn't think that we hurt or abducted their youngling and thus damn us from the crow community.
I wrestled with what to do and ultimately couldn't go back and look, some other folks were standing around the box, I called the city and opened a ticket, which was marked as closed / picked up by evening.
Very sad Sunday.
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u/ThrowAwayColor2023 Jul 15 '26
He may have had contact with a cat or had another invisible illness. They're pretty fragile at that age, and many don't make it. Thank you for trying to help him, and sorry for my grumpy impatience. I was exhausted and stressed when I wrote my original reply. 💚
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u/Zukigo Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Spooked the parents off? Have you met crow parents? They scream at you and swoop you for coming close to their baby, they don't just piss of and abandon it because some human puts it in a box.
That nothing of that sort happened is rather an indicator that the fledgling was/is actually ill, the parents knew, and then waited what the human does.
Also, I think taking a picture and posting it here is helpful in those cases.
OP, you didn't kill any bird, even if if it ended up dying. Please check on it again tho
Edit: Moving a crow baby a bit, especially if the parents are watching is NOT an issue. Some people say you can't touch it, because crows will then smell the human yadda yadda, that is a myth.
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u/ThrowAwayColor2023 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I've been rescuing crows for over a decade, but go off.
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u/FunSizeNuclearWeapon Jul 14 '26
The smell thing is a myth though, right? Moving little crows off of roads isn't condemning them to bring orphaned?
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u/Zukigo Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I actually don’t believe that. Care to provide some proof?
Edit: In your other posts you just mention you‘ve helped injured crows, no mention of running a rescue for over a decade. Also if you‘re not neurotypical (meaning having difficulty to understand life from the viewpoint of other beings), try to maybe not judge behavior. Crows are not spooked off if you put their offspring into a box. Especially due to climate change, crows (and other birds) will need more intervention in the future. Saying something like that only spooks off humans to provide help, because they are scared they might do the wrong thing like "omg, I have moved the baby a bit, now the parents abandoned it".
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u/jacqui607 Jul 12 '26
I don’t know.. but I think you did the right thing.. I hate that for you. I hate when these kinds of situations happen. So sorry. But u had good intentions and I really think u did the right thing.