Strange (?) crow behavior (1 Viewer)

My mother has had a birdbath for decades. Last week when she looked at it, she said there was a small dead bird, small bones and other debris in it. She kept an eye out and discovered that a crow was depositing bones and other garbage in the birdbath. She asked me what to do. Other than covering the birdbath, I didin't have any suggestions to offer her.

Anyone have any clue into this behavior and what to do about it??

TIA

Curious! I've no clue, other than to say that is one particularly tidy crow!
I know they 'hide away' shiny things, but this is......well....trash.
shelley

Oh did I find a goody for you! this information I retrieved from

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm#birdbath

We have a pair of crows in our backyard that use our bird bath as a depository for all of the carcasses they find. There are various snakes and rodents in the bath right now. It is disgusting. Why do they do that?

Crows and all members of the family Corvidae will store excess food. Sometimes you can see crows bury things in the grass of the yard (usually covering it up with a leaf or plucked grass; sometimes looking at it several times and using a number of different coverings before being satisfied that it really is hidden). They also hide food in trees or rain gutters, or whatever is a handy spot. At this time of the year (April) crows are nesting, and the female breeder sits all day on the eggs or young nestlings. She leaves the nest only infrequently and the male and the helpers bring her food. Food is easy to bring (all pecked into pieces and stashed in the throat under the tongue), but water is harder. So, crows often will dunk dry foods in water and take the moistened food to the nest. It is likely that that is what is going on in the birdbath. In my experience with several captive crows, some individual crows also seem more inclined to put food in water and leave it there than others. Perhaps they want it to rot a little to improve the flavor a bit before they eat it (just like we do when we "age" beef).


Many other tidbits at the above website to enlighten you about crow behavior.

shelley

Thanks, Shelley. That was very helpful! The web page has more than I ever wanted to know about crows. |:d|

Hi Shelly, thanks for that very interesting link.

wow - im all crowed out - informative site
Is there anything on Crow/Gull relationships (not friends)

Excellent site worth crowing about (ouch!)

Cheers

Stewart

:hi:

The placing of objects in water by most all corvids goes far beyond the nesting requirements of the female and chicks. Crows will collect foraged items they cached that have dried out as well as newly discovered dried items and place them in water to reconstitute them.

It is a similar thing to the way we reconstituted dried meats and fish prepared for long storage. A dried piece of meat keeps a long time before reaching the point of holding no nutritional value.

The crows and other corvids know that and use it.

The problem is , a dry piece of meat is very hard to eat. Birds have no teeth. For that reason they throw the dried things in water until the food has softened enough that the bird can rip off pieces for consumption more easily.

You can put a cake pan of water some place out of the way in your yard and keep it full for the corvids.

to move them to it :>

First put out the pan and let them see it and get use to it.

They may still use your bird bath but they will be aware there is another source nearby.

After a couple of days. place an object such as an old slipper or small stuffed animal on the edge of your bird bath for a day or so. They will not go near it as a rule. Especially mature crows .

The corvids will abandon the bird bath and start using the cake pan instead.

When you remove the slipper or what ever you use from the edge of the bird bath , if the corvids start using it again , put the slipper back until they go back to the cake pan.

They learn quickly.

From that point forward if a corvid puts anything in your bird bath , it is probably a newbie to your yard that was not around for the first lesson and the slipper or what ever you decide to use should be used to train the newbie.

Do not use familiar object the crows will encounter in their travels such as bottles or can etc. They already know such things present no threat to them and will stand right next to them.

Do not forget to change the water in the cake pan ever evening or two.

JR.Inghram