Types of Crows and Some Facts About Them

Content:

Introduction to Crows
Crows’ Habitat
Types of Crows
Crows’ Diet
Crows’ Offspring
How to Get Rid of Crows
Conclusion

Crows are seen in different places around the world.

Do you want to know more about the different types of crows?

Then, you should read this.

Introduction to Crows

The first significant identity of crows is their black color and their unique caw sound. They are very intelligent and can adapt to different weather conditions of the world. They are enemies of farmers because they cause great economic damage to crops.

The most common question people ask about crows is, how many types of crows are there? Crows belong to the famous genus, Corvus. Other members of the genus aside from crows include magpies, jays, and nutcrackers.

Crows’ Habitat

Crows tend to be very common across different habitats of the world. They prefer to be in open spaces like grasslands, trees, and agricultural places. Some other times, they are found in suburban neighborhoods.

Generally, birds are found in different places in the world. They are common in places like Scandinavia, northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, and all across Asia, the Pacific Ocean, India, the Himalayas, Iran, India, Canary Islands, North Africa, Central, and North America, and even across Nicaragua.

They like open spaces like treeless, seacoasts, rocky cliffs, treeless tundra, mountain forests, plains, open riverbanks, scrubby woodlands, and deserts. There are also rooks – smaller than crows which are found across western Asia and Europe. Like crows, they love river plains, free open spaces, and steppes.

Types of Crows

The major different types of crows are based on their taxonomic classification. There are over 30 different types of crows. The most common types include;

Corvus brachyrhynchos (American crow)
Corvus corax (Common raven)
Corvus caurinus (Northwestern crow)
Corvus corone (Carrion crow)
Corvus cryptoleucus (Chihuahuan raven)
Corvus coronoides (Australian raven)
Corvus florensis (Flores crow)
Corvus hawaiiensis (‘Alala, Hawaiian crow)
Corvus frugilegus (rook)
Corvus mellori (Little raven)
Corvus imparatus (Mexican crow)
Corvus ossifragus (Fish crow)

NB: Rooks and ravens are often classified as different types of crow.

Crows’ Diet

Crows can eat plants and animals – this means they are omnivores. They can feed on amphibians, eggs, insects, mammals, reptiles, mollusks, earthworms, carrion, and some birds.

Similarly, they feed on nuts, fruits, seeds, and other plants. They also eat stored food and garbage.

Crows’ Offspring

Crows have territories that make it easy to breed their younger ones. This helps them to defend and raise their chicks appropriately. Crows build a nest when they are about to have offspring. They use hair, branches, twigs, twine, bark, cloth, plant fibers, and other materials.

The female crows lay eggs (4 or 5 eggs). They incubate the eggs for 18 days. After four weeks, the mother crows may push the chicks out of the nest or they may feed them for 60 days. Some crows have lived for 14 years.

How to Get Rid of Crows?

People want to get rid of crows out of their yards not because of how large they are but due to their irritating caw sound. Here are ways you can get rid of crows from the environment.

Regularly clean and clear the yard to make it look more attractive and unattractive to crows. Remove garbage or food that may lie on the ground such that crows are not attracted by any food substance on the ground.
Scarecrows have been an effective solution to scare crows away from farmlands or homes. Building a scarecrow is not difficult. All needed are old clothes and a pole stake. The old clothes on the pole look like a real person. Sometimes, it flaps during the wind and scares crows away.
Shiny objects like aluminum plates are another way to scare away crows. Get a string across a CD and hang it somewhere in the yard. This has been an effective repellent for crows over the years.
Playing the CDs too is another effective way to scare these crows. However, the CDs should better be the sounds of their predators.
Some people hunt down birds with guns. There is a need to be sure how legal this is before going ahead. Some designated areas do not permit such as it has a greater level of risks attached to it.