What Do Crows Eat: Their Eating Habits!

Do you want to learn about crows and their eating habits? Do you want to learn “what crows eat” in general? You have landed in the right place.

Crows are one of the most intelligent birds in the animal kingdom. They are signified as a symbol of cleverness, intelligence, and brainpower. Children especially like to talk and learn about birds including crows. Although many studies show many things about crows however the article provides an insight into “what do crows eat” as well as “what to feed crows”. The article will help you learn about their nutritive value and the diet that they should feed if you want to get a crow.

Eating Habits – What Do Crows Eat?

Are you curious about “what can crows eat” or perhaps you have a query “what can I feed crows”? There are more or less 45 species of crows existing across the globe. A few of the most discussed species include the common raven, American crow, hooded crow, rook, carrion crow and more. They exist on every continent in the world except for Antarctica and South America.

In addition, when talking about “crow facts” they seem to be cleverer birds, sure about their activities and extraordinarily high intelligence – and that’s for a reason of course. They have succeeded in adapting to many ways including learning how to hunt and eat a wide array of food either in the forms of little insects, small birds, chicks or trash.

Let’s take an in-depth look at “what do crows eat”, their favorite meals, and how they hunt to fulfil their needs.

How Do Crows Find Food?

To answer the query “what do crows eat” we must explore “how do crows find food” first. Social, fearless and highly intelligent, crows tend to hunt in a group. You may also observe whenever they find something like raw meat offered by human beings, they would come in groups and groups. You will throw raw meat in the air only to observe groups of crows coming down from nowhere to catch that meat. They would pick it up in the air and then fly back towards a spot or a tree where they can consume it.

Their groups typically comprise a breeding pair as well as their offspring of more or less two to three years. Crows are good companions of each other – they would stick with each other for long terms. They tend to work together when looking for food so that they can capture their prey or various sources of food including small birds and insects.

In addition to that, some crows even know how to use available sources like rudimentary tools in order to catch prey easily and simply. For instance, you may have heard a story about a crow as how once a thirst crow found a jug filled half with water beyond the reach of its beak. He tried to drink water but failed again and again.

After failing to push it over, the clever crow started collecting stones and dropping in one by one into the jug until the water rises to the top. Now it was easy for the crow to drink water eventually. This is how the brain crow learns on the spot how to make it possible for it to drink water.

Furthermore, a research study pertaining to “what do crows eat” shows that New Caledonian crows are great at learning new ways to fulfil their nutritive needs. It further shows how these crows commonly use items like rocks, modified twigs, and other things to retrieve and tear into their meals. In addition, even juvenile crows were clever and smart enough to promptly pick up on how to utilize such tools that can make their eating routine easy.

Dive into the article to know in greater detail about “what do crows eat”.

What Do Crows Eat: Complete Diet!

We may discuss “what do crows eat” however a better question might be “what do they not eat”. Because they tend to eat everything – literally everything. Crows are recognized as omnivorous opportunists since they eat nearly foods from crabapples to crabs to birds to frogs to carrion and more. Also, the list doesn’t end here. With every specie of crows, the list goes long and long. However below mentioned is the easier categorization regarding to “what do crows eat”.

Fruits and Seeds

You would be amazed to know that fruits and seeds are one of the biggest food consumption for crows making up nearly three-quarters of their diet.  Crows tend to consume fruits and seeds wherever they find them as it is one of the easiest sources of food for them. This includes:

• Oats
• Poison
• Grapes
• pecans
• Pistachios
• Corn wheat
• Watermelons
• Chokecherries
• Nightshade berries
• Red Osier Dogwood fruits
• And more.

Insects

When we talk about “what do crows eat” we are sure that they are food lovers consuming whatever they are offered both in the wildlife by nature and in urban areas where humans might become a source of their food whether directly or indirectly. Crows of any specie eat a wide range of ground-dwelling and flying insects including gypsy moth, corn borer, ichneumon wasps, ground beetles and more.

Bird Eggs

Crows are very shrewd when it comes to arranging daily food. If they don’t succeed in preying on other birds and insects., they would try to get bird eggs. Crows tend to raid birds’ nests to obtain their eggs including least terns, common loons, pinyon, savannah sparrows, American robins, scrub jays, mallards and more. Eggs of these birds are a protein-rich meal for crows that is enough to fulfill their daily dietary needs.

Reptiles and Amphibians

Crows don’t only prey on small birds and insects but turtles in all stages of life are a great source of their food intake. A turtle would have a three-stage lifecycle including eggs, hatchlings and adults and at every stage, the poor animal is going to be a crow’s meal. In addition, crows also hunt frogs, lizards, toads, snakes and more.

Birds

Crows eating habits are quite simple as they are not picky when it comes to arranging food. They don’t only eat bird eggs but they would hunt birds of various species including sparrows, European starlings and more. Crows don’t wait for birds to rest on a spot, rather they would catch them in the middle of the flight easily.

Fish

Crows don’t only eat birds and commercial foods. Rather they paddle into deep water to prey on fish and other sea animals including Gizzard Shad. In addition, crows also tend to prey on trout and carcasses of port spawn salmon as well. This is how they manage to arrange their daily meals without any such trouble and hard work.

Mammals

Are you still curious about knowing what more a crow can eat or “what do crows eat” if they couldn’t find the above-mentioned food? Crows in the case of not being able to find fish, birds or eggs, would not sit uselessly. They would go in a group to prey on mammals including voles, deer mice, shrews, bats and more. Crows are highly keen when going for their hunt in a group.

Carrions

Crows often find ways to eat something different and interesting other than raw meat and fruits. Along with eagles, ravens, gulls, and vultures, crows feed upon carcasses such as roadkill and more.

Human Food

In recent decades, crows have been observed migrating to urban and suburban areas where they can find ways to live and feed more simply. In urban areas, crows would consume any human foods they can find anywhere. In addition, they would eat trash, dog food and other leftover or waste food as well.

Do Crows Cache Food?

When discussing “what do crows eat”, you might also want to know do crows hide their food for later or not. Another amazing fact about crows and their eating habits is that they might prey on a relatively big bird or perhaps obtain more than one or multiple bird eggs.

Knowing the fact that crows don’t eat too much at once, they tend to hide their remaining food for later consumption. Crows would hide their food under the snow, in trees, in their nests or on the ground as well. In addition, crows are known to hide or store foods like corn, fish, frogs, pecans, clams, carrion, snakes, dung, egg and more.

Summing It Up

Crows are fairly flexible when it comes to going to prey on birds. They work in pairs along with other crows to successfully hunt their target. They many times have also been observed stealing foods from other small birds like sparrows as well.

Thus, when we argue about “what do crows eat”, we all can come on a single page that this shrewd creature of the animal kingdom would eat everything and anything.