Crows in Backyard: What It Means and What to Do

A crow in your backyard is almost always there for food, and it is most likely a local bird rather than a stranger passing through. Audubon lists the American Crow's diet as insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, frogs, small snakes, carrion, garbage, seeds, grain, berries, fruit, and the eggs and young of other birds. A lawn with grubs and worms, spilled feeder seed, pet food left outside, compost or an open trash bag is enough to bring one in.

Crows are also settled neighbors. Audubon describes the species as a permanent resident across much of North America, and Wikipedia describes family groups of up to 15 birds that stay together across seasons. The crow that walks your lawn most mornings is probably one member of a family that lives within sight of your house.

In folklore a crow is read as an omen of death, luck or a message. None of the sources on this page treat that as more than folklore. The practical reading is simpler: your yard has food, water or a safe perch.

Three all-black birds get called crows in North American yards. Check these before anything else:

• American Crow: 16-21 in long, wingspan 34-39 in, 11-22 oz. Entirely black with a strong bill and a relatively short, square-tipped tail. The call is the familiar caw-caw or caa-caa (Audubon).
• Fish Crow: smaller than the American Crow, and the call is the reliable test: a nasal uh-ugh instead of a caw (Mass Audubon). Wikipedia adds that it tends to fluff its throat feathers when calling and looks shorter-legged.
• Common Raven: a larger bird with an almost lozenge-shaped, wedge-like tail, and it soars for long periods, which crows do not (Wikipedia).

If the bird is black but clearly smaller than a crow, it is more likely a grackle, blackbird or starling. The crow feather page compares those species if all you found was a feather.

A single crow in the yard is not by itself a sign that something is wrong. The timing tells you most:

• Spring: Mass Audubon puts courtship and nest building in late March and April, with eggs laid between early May and mid-June in Massachusetts and an 18-day incubation. An adult feeding alone at this time may be a breeding bird slipping away from the nest.
• Early summer: Audubon gives 4-5 weeks from hatching to leaving the nest. A clumsy young crow with a short tail, hopping on the ground and begging, is usually a fledgling. Adults calling loudly from nearby trees are most likely its family.
• Any season: a crow that cannot stand, has an obvious wound or droops for hours is a different case. Call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator or your state wildlife agency. Crows are federally protected, so taking one in to keep is not an option.

Watch from a distance for an hour before deciding a young crow needs help.

A big group of crows in your yard usually means one of two things.

• Winter roosting: Mass Audubon says crows gather in communal roosts from November to March, with anywhere from 100 to 10,000+ birds, and will travel up to 50 miles to reach one. Audubon describes some winter roosts with tens of thousands of crows in one grove. Flocks crossing or stopping in yards in the colder months are often on the way to or from such a roost.
• Mobbing: a noisy group circling or diving at one tree, all calling at once, has usually found a predator. See the next section.

A large group that simply feeds on your lawn for days is responding to food. Removing the food source is what changes that.

Yes, and loudly. Wikipedia's article on mobbing names crows among the North American birds that mob predators most often, with tactics that include flying around the intruder, dive-bombing, loud calling and defecating on it; its photos show American Crows mobbing a Red-tailed Hawk and a perched Bald Eagle. Wikipedia's Red-shouldered Hawk article adds that those hawks cooperate with American Crows against a shared predator, the Great Horned Owl.

This is useful to anyone who wants to see an owl or hawk. When the crows in your neighborhood gather around one tree and scream without letting up, scan the inner branches: there is often a roosting owl or a perched hawk inside.

Crows also learn individual people. Wikipedia summarizes research showing crows can remember and identify people by their appearance, which is why a crow may scold one neighbor and ignore another.

For most yards, yes, with two trade-offs to know about.

• What they take: the Audubon diet list includes insects, earthworms and snails, but also the eggs and young of other birds. If you host nest boxes for small songbirds, crows are one of the predators those nests face. Mass Audubon notes crows open garbage bags, so an unsecured bin will be found.
• What they are: American Crows are native, protected and not rare. Audubon estimates about 28 million and lists them as Least Concern. Wikipedia reports that West Nile virus, present in North America since 1999, has cut the population by up to 45% by some estimates, with local deaths of up to 72% in a single season.

Because of West Nile virus, do not pick up a dead crow with bare hands. Use gloves or an inverted bag, and check with your local or state health department, which may want to know about dead birds.

If you want to feed them: crows cache food and remember people (Mass Audubon; Wikipedia), so a regular feeder will be learned quickly. Keep portions small so you do not draw a whole winter flock, and do not feed them next to songbird nest boxes.

If you want fewer of them:

• Remove what they come for: secure trash, bring pet food in, cover compost, clean up spilled seed under feeders.
• For a roost in your trees, Mass Audubon says loud noise works best, and that fake owls and odor repellents fail, because crows have a poorly developed sense of smell and learn to ignore objects that do not threaten them.

What the law allows: the federal depredation order at 50 CFR 21.150 covers American, Fish and Northwestern Crows. It allows control without a federal permit only when crows are seriously damaging crops or livestock feed, causing a health hazard or structural property damage, or threatening endangered or threatened species, and it requires nonlethal methods, such as netting and flagging, trained raptors, propane cannons and recordings, to be tried first each calendar year. State and local rules also apply. Crows at a backyard feeder do not meet those conditions.

What the crows in your yard are doing changes through the year. Dates below are from Mass Audubon for Massachusetts and from Audubon's species account; farther south, nesting starts earlier.

• November to March: communal roosts, 100 to 10,000+ birds, flights of up to 50 miles to the roost.
• Late March to April: courtship and nest building. Audubon describes males fluffing, spreading their wings and bowing with rattling calls. Nests are bulky stick baskets 10-70 ft up.
• Early May to mid-June: eggs, usually 4-6 (Audubon) or 3-6 (Mass Audubon), incubated for about 18 days, with 3-6 older offspring helping.
• Early summer: young leave the nest at 4-5 weeks and follow the family, begging noisily.
• Late summer and fall: the family group forages together before joining winter flocks.

Get the whole bird side-on with the tail in the frame, since tail shape separates a crow from a raven. If you can, record a few seconds of the call on your phone: for American Crow versus Fish Crow the voice is the most reliable clue. BirdLens identifies the bird from a photo; check the answer against the size and call notes above.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.