Crows are ranked among some of the smartest birds on the animal kingdom and for many valid reasons as this passage shall illustrate. These smart representatives of the Corvus genus are capable of manufacturing and applying simple tools made of twigs and stones, have developed ways of interaction with other birds, and have auditory or other ways of remembering, search and finding food stashed by them during certain periods of time.
Within the Corvus grouping there are approximately 45 different species of these birds that include crows, ravens and rooks. They are present in all the continents of the world excluding South America and Antarctica. Of course, they are extremely wise birds; thus such high level of the intelligence is one of the features of these birds that allow them to learn how to hunt and find a great number of different food kinds. What do crows eat?
In this case, let’s have a closer look at the diet of crows, their preferences, the ways they search for food, and how they forage.
Foods That Crows Like
Crows are heterogeneous feeders what means that they have a wide variety of food including seeds, nuts, berries, small mammals such as rodents, snakes, and insects, birds’ eggs, fish and so on. More than 70% of their foods include fruits and seeds like watermelon, grapes, choke cherries, red osier dogwood fruits, bittersweet nightshade berries, water melon, wheat, corn, oats, poison ivy, pistachio and pecans. They are very elastic and very good at taking advantage of this opportunity and this has definitely helped them to live longer than most other animals by surviving an average of 20-30 years in the wild.
Most crows aren’t too picky and are more than happy to feed on a wide variety of different foods, such as:Most crows aren’t too picky and are more than happy to feed on a wide variety of different foods, such as:
- Various seeds and nuts
- Mice
- Moles
- Fruits, most commonly berries
- Grains
- Beetles
- Worms
- Small snakes
- Frogs and salamanders
- Eggs
- Small fish
- Garden vegetable crops
- Mollusks
- Lizards
Carbohydrate gathered from the single space which is least likely to be direct scrutinize by humans, including garbage cans, and other places where left over food is usually deposited. As it can be observed, they are very versatile feeders that make a good use of any kind of food they are able to find and they could quickly adapt to any rural, semi-urban or urban environments.
How Do Crows Find Food?
This very often leads us to wonder the way in which crows look for food and exactly how they are in a position to procure it. After defining the answer to the question “What do crows prefer to eat?” it is high time to focus on the ways these wise birds feed themselves. These birds are intelligent and social, they usually feed in flock, particularly in the family of crows. Such family groups are generally formed by an adult pair and young ones from the previous two to three years! The two spend a lot of time together and also hunt in harmony to hunt for their respective numerous food sources.
Incredibly some of them were seen to be using simple tools to make catching of pray and even looking for food to be even easier for them! A New Caledonian crow study in 2005 for an instance exposed how the birds use various tools such as modified twigs, rocks among other things to fetch food and pull it apart. And these ‘mentally challenged’ juvenile birds were also smart enough to learn how to use these pre-historic utensils on the double. This is quite a remarkable finding bearing in mind that only a handful of animals are smart enough to figure out how to utilize objects in this fashion. And that is just one more reason why crows are amongst the smartest birds out there are not they?
Crow’s Favorite Food?
As if living on almost anything that a Crows Eat can lay its beaks on the bird is known to have its favorite meals. If you’ve befriended a crow in your yard recently and want to offer them something they’ll love, consider one of their favorites:If you’ve befriended a crow in your yard recently and want to offer them something they’ll love, consider one of their favorites:
- These are seeds enclosed in hard shell, and they include peanuts, walnuts and almonds.
- Chicken’s eggs whether raw, boiled, fried or scrambled, it does not matter to a crow at all.
- Products such as meat offal chicken and fish Ꙋ
- Dry cat and dog kibble/pellet food
