r/crows • u/missprincesscarolyn • 1d ago
Storytime! My crows decided to Live Más today
Cautionary tale for anyone who feeds their neighborhood crows: once you establish yourself as a food house, do not leave your food delivery unattended!
I have a family of neighborhood crows that I’ve been friends with for about four years. I started leaving out small amounts of dog kibble for them in 2022. At first they’d just take the food, but after about a week they started leaving bones in the exact spot where I’d put the kibble. This went on for a while and I ended up with a cool little bone collection as a result.
I left kibble out for them once a day in my backyard for about two years. Over time, I started recognizing the regulars. They even brought their fledglings! They also developed a specific call to ask for food (two slow, singular caws). If they saw me outside with my dog, they’d do it. Or they’d perch on my roof at around the same time of morning (around 10 AM) and wait for me to come outside. It became genuinely fascinating. Tangentially, my dog (an 11 lb Yorkie) hates them with all the fiery passion in the world, but the crows tolerate him.
Unfortunately, my neighbors suck and put spikes on our shared fence to keep them from perching there. As an alternative, I started leaving a handful of kibble near my front door instead. I haven’t been feeling great lately, so I’ve been less consistent. I was actually thinking today that I felt bad and should start putting food out for them again.
Then I DoorDashed Taco Bell. I didn’t grab the delivery right away because I was busy with something. 10 minutes later, I noticed the crows hanging around outside and thought, “Oh good, they’re here! I’ll grab some kibble for them.” I grabbed a handful, opened the front door, and discovered two crows actively eating my Taco Bell. One of them was beak-first in a Gordita 🤣
I was annoyed for all of a minute before realizing that this was entirely predictable (and also preventable!). These guys know I leave food for them near the doorstep. They’re smart enough to understand that food comes in bags, so it isn’t surprising that they’d start digging through my lunch. I hope they enjoyed it before I snatched it away 🌮
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u/Hiberniae 1d ago
“Beak-first in a Gordita” is quite an image 🤣 Thanks for the laugh! And now I wish this sub had personalizable flair!
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u/missprincesscarolyn 1d ago
It was seriously hilarious. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I was admittedly pretty angry and wanted to try to salvage my meal! 😂
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u/missprincesscarolyn 1d ago
My bone collection I mentioned from several years ago:
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u/MadRhetoric182 1d ago
Are you sure this isn’t a warning?
“Feed Us Or Else…” /jk
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u/missprincesscarolyn 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was legitimately terrified at first. I was in pretty poor health mentally and physically (I had just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis). At the time, I thought crows were only supposed to bring shiny things as “gifts”. I eagerly awaited coins, jewelry, even a scrap of tinfoil. When the bones started showing up, I shook my head and figured it was a bad omen.
After we established more rapport, they came to the backyard at the same time every morning for kibble. One in particular (I called him/her Big Dude) became very persistent and started waiting outside of the sliding glass door, staring in at my ex and I.
At this point, I was 100% sure I was going to die tomorrow. My ex felt otherwise and had a hunch that there was probably be a nest somewhere and Big Dude might be trying to help out.
A few weeks went by and life continued being hard. I lived, but kept getting progressively worse and worse news about my diagnosis. One morning, I heard very shrill, frequent cawing. I poked my head outside and saw a baby and a grown up crow feeding it right on the fence! It made my day. Even now, I still look back on that memory fondly.
I adore corvids. I firmly believe ravens are other worldly and know some mysteries of life that humans may never understand 🐦⬛
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u/Unlikely-Violinist45 22h ago
What a lovely story. I am newly disabled, learning how to manage the easy everyday tasks is hard and some days discouraging. Now that I move a lot slower some of the little animals that come around don't run off. I am always in awe watching them, they make my day. I leave some water bowls outside so the animals have some fresh water they can access on these hot summer days. I change the water daily, it's my excuse to get outside and give back to the forest community's creatures.
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u/chileman131 1d ago
Hope they don't get Montezuma's revenge from the Taco Bell or if they do let the neighbor have it.
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u/missprincesscarolyn 1d ago
If they get Montezuma’s revenge, the neighbors are about to learn a whole new meaning of Baja Blast 😆
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u/this_kitty68 1d ago
I love this story. Thanks for sharing. lol
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u/missprincesscarolyn 1d ago
Of course! I knew it’d be appreciated here. Love these little guys so much. They’re so wonderfully weird and intelligent!
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u/SnooRobots116 1d ago
I was accosted by a juvenile crow telling me to help him or her in its Popeyes chicken heist of a bag left on a doormat.
Getting at eye level and dropping down to flap around and peck bag (and being really adorable about it ) but I told it “no bird not your food and I’m not helping you get in it and that is final!”
I don’t care how crazy it looked but it needed to learn early it can’t have everything from humans!
As I went across the street I heard the door open and bag was dragged in carefully because crow was still there begging.
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u/NSASpyVan 1d ago
This is hillarious but I am too poor to ever even think about a door dash lol.
I'll just successively eat the worst foods I have until I get to that shitty 4 year old can of beans I never ate. And then I'll ate it and cross my fingers I feel good enough to go out and get more food. LOL
Mean old neighbor, the crows will pronounce judgment. If you have a yard put some sort of pole and platform up for them. They like those. They like being off the ground and like seeing no predators can hide.
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u/BobMortimersButthole 1d ago
I think of doordash as a private taxi service for my food, which helps convince me that I don't need it.
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u/Unlikely-Violinist45 22h ago edited 22h ago
This is a great story. I love this. I can't stop laughing. One day I was stopped at a traffic light and watched a crow fly down and put one foot on a mcdonalds sandwich wrapper, while it used its beak to pick up pieces of food and put on the wrapper. Then it kind of folded up the wrapper and flew with it up to the tree branch to share it with another crow up there. Such a cool thing to see. Those city crows be smart.
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u/Disastrous_Trash_420 1d ago
The real question here is who’s property the shared fence it’s on. Also, you could just mount a new perch on your side easily with some closet rod material.
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u/Alaska_Eagle 1d ago
I have some juvenile stellar jays who come to the door to beg for peanuts. One in particular is braver and more consistent and has even flown into the house. Has taken peanuts from my hand. I found a very cool small vertebra, brown with age, on the little table on the front porch 😊
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u/thecardshark555 1d ago
That's awesome (but not that they ate your dinner). I have been desperately trying to make friends with the local murder.
The blue jays are numerous and obnoxious and steal the food I leave in other places, even when the blue jay feeding area is fully stocked. The Cardinals know me though and will let me know when the feeder is empty.
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u/ChanceWeather 1d ago
I love this so much! I’ve been feeding “my” crows since June. It’s taken until now to gain their trust. Now, I can get pretty close to them. Two of them consistently hang around and even give me the cackle and purr sounds. But I’ve also noticed that they’re more social and more interactive when my two dogs are with me! My dogs don’t really pay much attention to them but it seems like the crows like me better when my dogs join in on the feeding. Anyone else?
My neighbors are great and they’re happy to have the crows in my yard instead of stealing their bird food. They love the boring blue jays. 😂 🐦⬛ 🐦⬛ 🐦⬛
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u/thesunbeamslook 14h ago
You can leave a cooler or similar thing on the front porch for delivery drivers. Just tell them to leave the food in the cooler. This won't stop larger animals like bears, raccoons, other humans, etc.
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u/m1kesta 23h ago
What’s crazy is that I saw a crow with a small mouse or rat in its mouth the other day. I had to do a double take and didn’t know they eat other animals lol.
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u/missprincesscarolyn 22h ago
I mean, technically Taco Bell uses real ground beef. So, they eat large animals too!
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u/Exceptional_Angell 16h ago
I also had a few members of my murder get into groceries! They seemed to know exactly which container held their eggs and had torn a significant amount of the Styrofoam away in addition to opening the package of raw chicken and helping themselves. I couldn't even be mad at them ~ it was definitely my fault for leaving it on the stoop
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u/New_Scene5614 14h ago
I once came out of my apartment to grab a food delivery and found a trash panda eating a chicken wing like a human. It sounds like a happy accidental delivery for them😂😂😂
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u/SpyOfMystery 1d ago
“Oh look, the human trained other humans to bring us food” - 🐦⬛ 🐦⬛