The Crow is believed to be the most intelligent of all birds. When trying to open nuts, it will purposely place them in the roadway so cars will crack them open. Crows are identified by their black feathers, black eyes and the caw-caw sound they make. Adult crows have a light violet gloss on their body and a greenish blue gloss on their wings.

Crow Food Sources

Crows thrive mainly on corn, thus the reason scarecrows are put up in corn fields as well as other food crops and gardens. They damage corn crops by tearing open the cobs and exposing them to the weather. These birds can be seen sometimes following a plow so that they can feast on exposed earthworms. Although they cause damage to corn crops, crows are very beneficial to farmers by eating the June bugs, grasshoppers, weevils, and other insects that affect farmers’ fields. They also eat bugs, worms, road kill, mice, berries, spiders, millipedes, snails, salamanders, lizards, small mammals and fast food leftovers. Crows like to store any excess food they may find. They usually hide food in areas such as trees or in rain gutters.

Mating, Reproduction Habits of Crows

When courting, the adult crow fluffs his feathers, struts and fly in circle to attract a female crow. Once mated, the male and female crows stay together for life. Both take turns sitting on the 4-6 eggs in the nest. When building the nest, younger birds help build the nest and bring food and water to the mother to be. Building a nest usually take 1-2 weeks of gathering leaves, moss feathers, grass, twigs, and sticks. Baby crows stay in the nest up to 2 months before leaving. Adult crows can live up to ten years and are 21 inches from beak to tail when fully grown.

Crow Roosting and Migration

Crows are found all around the world except in New Zealand , Antarctica ad South America . They are found mainly in agricultural lands, farmland and woodlands. During the fall and winter months, crows “roost” together in packs. Roosting protects them from predators and always revolves around a major food source. Crows usually wait nearby until dusk before finding their roosting spot. Roosts can grow from 100 to thousands of crows. They have been known to migrate a few hundred miles away from their roost to search for scarce food and then return to the roost at night.

Crows are both migratory and resident. The Northern Crow usually migrates in the fall through January when the weather can get down to 0 degrees. Crows have been known to travel over 1500 miles to migrate to agricultural lands. Southern crows normally do not migrate as do their northern cousins.

Crows can sometime be mistaken to be ravens and vice versa. Between the two, the Crow is the smallest. Although the raven is black like the crow, it is the largest of the two species and has a shaggy throat feature as well as a wedge shaped tail that is most recognized when flying. When in flight, the raven's tail is fanned out. Ravens also soar more than crows.

More so than most other birds, Crows are also very territorial. They will come to the aid of unrelated crows in need of help or distress. Owls and hawks are their main enemies.

Crow Control - Safe, Humane and Effective

As fascinating as these intelligent birds can be to watch in action, there are times when they become a pest, as well as times when they are beneficial. Crows are helpful when it comes to getting rid of road-kill on our roads, highways and Interstate system. Animal carcasses are picked at until light enough to be carried out of the path of passing automobiles. But these birds are usually considered a pest when they come into contact with humans and structures not built as bird houses. Damage from crows can be tremendous in areas of agriculture as well as health hazards and other damage around people, buildings, airports and many other such areas.

We must always keep in mind that crows are much more intelligent than the average pest bird - pigeons, sparrows, geese and others. With intelligence comes the ability to adapt and change as needed.
Many people have used good bird control products but have had poor success with such items. There are two basic rules to use in bird control that are specially important when dealing with medium to large populations of crows:
1.) Mix and match different types of bird control methods and products. Prowler Owls (which are much more effective than your standard plastic owl) and Terror-Eyes have both proven to be effective visual bird deterrents. The BirdXPeller and BirdXPeller Pro are very effective audible bird deterrents. We offer three types of audible bird repellers: Sonic, Ultrasonic and combination of the two. Ultrasonic is at first the most appealing to anyone shopping for bird control products but this type has its downsides: ultrasonic waves cannot go around, over or through solid objects. But, when combined with sonic products, ultrasonic is a fantastic extra pop!
In the sonic department, we offer the Critter Blaster (designed primarily for animals; will scare birds.) and Super BirdXPeller Pro (designed primarily for birds.) Just recently, we have started carrying a brand new combination product.
**The Broadband Pro is a combination of Critter Blaster Pro, Super BirdXPeller Pro and the ultrasonic Quadblaster.**

Bird Proof and Bird Strips are great bird roost inhibitors. If only one type of deterrent is used, birds will quickly adapt, calling your bluff. Audible units are most effective against most pest birds (including crows) but even they need additional help to bring about effective control of crows. Always combine at least two or more types of bird repellers to get control of the situation. For on-going control or prevention, at least one and sometimes two types of repeller should be kept in place. Each location and situation demands its own attention to detail.
2.) Change location of visual repellents; change patterns or types of audible bird repellers. Any type of bird (even the ultra-obtuse pigeon) can become accustomed to your efforts to repel them from an area. Although Bird Spikes are left in place as prevention of roosting birds, visual scare devices (Prowler Owls and Terror-Eyes) should be rotated to different locations every week or so. Professional audible units (such as a Super BirdXPeller Pro or Broadband Pro) can be left in the same location for most jobs, there are times when at least a change in speaker positioning is required every two to eight weeks - at least until the problem has been brought under control.

Another advantage of using electrical audible devices is their flexibility. Different predator sounds and different bird distress calls can be combined for a sound that frightens or confuses birds. These sounds can be re-programmed at any point when you believe that the birds might be getting used to the current sound setup.

Government agencies such as NASA solved its pigeon infestation with the help of Terror-Eyes bird repeller as shown in these pictures:

Terror-Eyes

Pest Control Bird Control Pest Site Map Crow Control, Super Bird Expeller Pro Pests
Crow Roosting and Migration Crow Food Sources Mating, Reproduction Habits of Crows