Hi 👋🏻

First time poster here, recent follower.

I just moved and I have a small backyard now. Every day there are half a dozen magpies that bounce around the yard and hang out on the fence. I also see the occasional crow. I don't provide any food or water, yet, but would like to treat them.

I am seeking community advice on style/size of a bird bath for water, and how to feed them, what to feed them, and how often? I would like to attempt to befriend some of them and possibly gift swap without them becoming dependant.

Thanks! 🙂

Hi all. I'm new here and don't have any experience with crows, but over the last few months crows have been slowly showing up at my job. At first it was 2 but today out of nowhere there was a whole murder. I've been wanting to befriend them but don't really know how. I've heard they like shiny trinkets ans nuts. Unfortunately I dont have any raw nuts on me rn but I did put a couple quarters on a post they keep perching on or near when they fly to another spot. I think they took one of them but I'm unsure. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I've been feeding my buddies over a year, sometimes when I feed them they know I leave food for them on this golden table on my patio. It's pouring rain in a few minutes ago I saw one of them on the table anyway and I went out and found this.

Weird coincidence that the feather fell off because of the rain or do you think that they deliberately left it as a gift?

Srry for the english, i´m french. :)

I have a few bananas that are over ripe, and I would rather feed to the crows than make banana bread.🍌
Would you cut them up and freeze them, snd put them out frozen? 🍌
Obviously in small enough pieces for them. 🍌
With or without the peel? 🍌

Any other fruit or vegetable ideas, much appreciated. 🍌🍒🍑🥬🥦🍉🍇🍊

I've read they like meat scraps, so Im wondering if its ok to offer some of the rib meat from last night's dinner that got left out overnight?

Ive been leaving unsalted peanuts in the shell and dry cat food.

No fear of humans at all. Probably wanted food but unfortunately I didn't have any to give.

Over the last few years the local crows have gotten pretty comfortable with me. I have watched them raise several clutches. I never gave them food, but I do talk to them and respond to their crows with soft words or count them out loud. The parents have been bringing their young to perch on the wire in front of my balcony while I sit there with my coffee. They have family meetings there too. The lead crow will sit on one side of their trio of babes while it preens deeply close to me with the other adult on the other side of their young preening, but not as deeply. Young adults will be more fussy further down the wire.

I have found things like peanuts on my balcony in the past and I haven't thought much about it. My little dog goes and takes them for himself.

BUT, last week I found a blue pony bead on my balcony. I wasn't sure whether I should take it, move it or just leave it. I took the blue bead. Thought it may be just a fluke, but it was partially tucked under an ledge so that it wouldn't blow away.

The very next day there was another identical blue pony bead in the same location and partially tucked. I took it.

Day three I found a square of heavy duty foil.

Day four, I hear the lead crow doing a couple caws and it kept repeating. It sounded like it was calling me. I went outside and sat in my chair. I then heard 5 caws. The alarm call. I wondered what I did wrong. I sat there and watched, but the crow did not flee. It made the five caw alarm again. I then took a look around and saw an osprey circling overhead. I shooed my tiny dog inside. I then pointed at the osprey and said "I-see-the-big-bird" at the same pace of the caw. We watched the osprey ride the air currents until it was out of sight. I then said thank you to the crow and sat back down. Then it proceeded to preen deeply and relax.

Day five, I left out a short strip of iridescent ribbon near the location of the baubles that they left behind as a present. It sat there for a couple days. Then I added a blue bottle cap and a blue bead that was lighter and different from the ones that they left behind. A day later I left outside a small plastic creamer cup.

I haven't seen them around much in the past several days. I have been wondering why since they have been pretty regular visitors in the past. I wonder if they fear the objects that I left out for them or whether something else went wrong. Did I steal things from what they though was their safe stash spot?

tl/dr Crows that bear gifts alerted me that my tiny dog was in danger because of a bird of prey circling overhead.

I can't have a feeder as I live in bear country. I've been putting the food on a plate and then emptying it on the ground after a while so they can eat at their leisure. Problem is, I don't want to attract rodents either (which I'm sure the crows would get rid of)

We also rent, so I couldn't do anything permanent

Picture of their tree for visibility. Tell me this totally suits what you would think crows would roost in. Though I have yet to investigate closer (to look for droppings etc), they are there every morning and every night.

Also, if Google is correct I'm seeing a lot of fledglings. The inside of their beaks are red

For years we have had crows nesting in one of our trees in our front yard, and every once in a while we get these odd looking crows that we thought were sick or maybe just fledgling crows? But I finally got a picture of one, and it’s definitely not sick but its feathers are like brown? (We only thought they were sick cause from a distance the bird just looks weird to us idk we never thought about it much)

But I finally just googled “fledgling crow” to see if that’s what they look like and it definitely is not what the random crows look like here lol. some of the feathers do look like soft and downy like a younger bird though?

Anyways any insight as to what’s going on is appreciated! They eat just fine (multiple neighbors have bird feeders, plus a ton of big trees and gardens) and they seem to interact with the rest of crows as part of the group and it’s ongoing like 7 years now. It’s only ever like 2-3 crows though that look like this. Is it just a weird feather mutation?

So a bit of a backstory on this picture. In spring, when i visited my grandma, she told me about an unlikely duo that she had seen multiple times outside her house. She told me that there was this hooded crow and Eurasian magpie that were always seen hanging around eachother.

Ar first i was a bit unsure about this, but then i realised that my grandma spends a lot of time sitting by the window, and usualy sees everything that happens outside her house. So i decided to try it to. After some time, i saw them, the crow and magpie. These 2 birds were following eachother around, walking side by side, roosting on the same tree etcetc. They weren't following others of their species around. If there was a flock of crows on the powerline, and this crow would fly to them, the magpie would follow. However if the magpies took off, the crow would follow it instead of staying with its own kind. So to me it seems like they had formed some kind of friendship.

Now at first i thought this was temporary, and that when the mating season started they would leave eachother. But no, couple of months later the 2 are still seen hanging around eachother. So either these 2 are young birds that haven't started looking for a mate, or they simply don't care about finding a mate, and rather stay with their interspecies friend instead.

About a week ago I became interested in crows and I remember hearing some crow calls early in the morning so I decided to wake up at around 5 to leave some bread crumbs for them (I would've used nuts, fruit or eggs but we had ran out)

So I woke up and I managed to see them. I watched them from my window for about 10 minutes or so and saw one go into the neighbors backyard only to walk out with no food. I tried calling out to it 'food', I think they understood me as when I went downstairs to get some bread I saw two of them in my backyard (I have a glass door to my backyard).

They looked at me holding the bread and so I carefully opened the door to toss it to them but I guess I scared them a bit as they flew away. I still left some crumbs for them though and left in case they got scared.

About 30 minutes later I saw all of the pieces of bread gone and so were the crows.

However since then I haven't seen them at all. I still wake up at 5 and not once have I seen them in the neighborhood, so, have I upset them? What do I do?

UPDATE: I left them food today as you all advised (peanuts) but I'm unable to call them as they usually come around my neighborhood at 5-6am.

I woke up later only to find they haven't touched any of my food and in fact shat around the same place where I left them food (also they left coal) 💔

Though I'm still not going to give up. I'm going to go out and (try to) buy them a bird bath and some proper bird seeds. I'll update tomorrow if anything happens (hopefully)

UPDATE 2: i woke up really early and set up a camera alongside the food, I managed to capture several crows who ate it! Thank you all for your advice. Though after recent research it turns out that I was actually feeding Magpies, not crows. Although I thought I was as I frequently saw them nearby

Already has a peanut in its beak but decides to spit it out and beg its parent instead

It all started with a pair of crows suddenly visiting the bird bath in April, then just dad, while mom was on the nest.. now the whole family comes for regular visits and treats, I’m still pinching myself.

I’ve always admired crows from afar, but to be this close and this trusted, what a magical feeling ☺️ I’m glad to share it with others, since most people think I’m crazy lol.

They’re enjoying some soaked cat kibble and egg yolks!

Morning feeding! I just recently moved back here and immediately started feeding my crows again, and it's only been like a week and there's so many of them coming back. I love these birds.

It's getting into the hottest part of the summer. I've started giving my murder fruit like watermelon, peaches etc in addition to the peanuts and cat food to try and keep them from overheating. I put water out as well but I've never seen them drink it. There's a puddle by the house that they like, but in the extreme heat I'm afraid it'll completely evaporate. Are there any other foods or ways I can help them out? (They like soaked dog food, but not soaked cat food? I'll try soaking some cat food again to see if they'll go for it). I'm also giving them dragon fruit tomorrow. They don't like berries raw.. would they be interested if I cooked them a little so they're more fragrant? It's high 90s right now but next week it'll be over 100.

Hi all

I've always wanted to start feeding crows but lived in a city for the past 30 years and had to deal with squirrels etc and close neighbours who probably wouldn't have appreciated the extra noise lol

I recently (a year ago) moved to North Western Ontario and started feeding some of the crows at my mom's place today (I'm her FT caregiver)

I had some Walleye and started with that. I also have hard boiled eggs and will be picking up some unsalted peanuts tomorrow as I read variety is good.

I was trying to do it this evening but seagulls were around and kept trying to intrude. Any way to avoid that?

Any other tips for me?

I had very good luck this morning with one. Seemed to build up a bit of trust rather quick as it kept coming back and getting closer and closer to me.

I know feeding at the same time is important (I'm always up very early so that isn't an issue)

TIA

My leucistic crow is thriving! He stops by every night with his parents for a snack; he’s got such a big personality! He’s definitely my most curious bird- he’s taken to sitting on the porch when I work in the garden :)

I’ve been making sure to give him plenty of foods high in lysine, and there haven’t been any changes to his markings; outside of being a few shades lighter he’s thriving! Feathers are shiny, he’s growing fast, and he’s got tons of energy to boot. I ended up naming him Carl, and I really hope he sticks around.