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Common Crow

(Corvus brachyrhynchos)

Photo: Ron Austing

Size             : 17 - 21 inches long (43 - 53 cm)
Description      : Male   - Completely black; has fan-shaped tail; powerful, stout bill, and 
                            bright yellow eyes.

                   Female - Same as male

Preferred Habitat: Farms, woodland, and suburbs

Preferred food   : Omnivorous: carrion, insects, fruit, grain; especially attracted to cracked corn, suet, 
                   peanut butter, and sunflower seeds at the feeder, but will also eat baked goods, fruit,
                   and most anything else

Breeding Range   : From Newfoundland to British Columbia, south to Baja California, east through 
                   central Arizona, nothwestern New Mexico to Oklahoma, south through east Texas 
                   through Gulf states and Florida 

Winter Range     : South of Canada

Interesting Facts:- One of the best known birds: exists everywhere except in South America
                  - Make interesting pets when obtained young; they can learn to mimic the human voice
                  - Intelligent birds
                  - Attracted to bright objects, which they often carry off and hide
                  - Eat enormeous amounts of grasshoppers and cutworms
                  - Voice: 'caw-caw-caw'
                  - Nests are large and bulky(7 inches high and approx 24 in. in diameter), made of sticks, 
                    lined with feathers, moss, rootlets, cloth, string, and grasses
                  - Sometimes evicted from their nests by great horned owls 
                  - Social creatures
                  - Both parents share in incubation and care of the young
                  - Clutch size: 4 - 5; incubation period: 18 - 21 days; nestling period: 25 days; broods per
                    season: 1 or 2; fledgling period: 14 days - during this time the young follow their 
                    parents and beg for food