3 Helpful Tips for Befriending and Bonding with Crows

Crows are incredible creatures. Although Hollywood makes these birds out to be signs of evil, in reality, they couldn’t be purer. Their all-black presence may scare some people off, but they are shockingly smart and friendly birds. 

If you’re an avid outdoorsman or just looking to have your Disney princess moment, we’ve discovered helpful tips to befriend crows. Like any good friendship, this will take time, patience, and a bit of bribery. 

Seriously, food will get you far with these birds! Let’s take a look at what you can do to become friendly with these creatures! 

1. Create a Welcoming Environment

Crows feel more at ease when exploring the calm, open spaces that they are certain are safe. Remove any clutter from your backyard and relocate anything that makes noise, so the birds won’t be startled.

This will make your garden more attractive to these birds. When you’re actively befriending a crow, keep any pets indoors, as they can easily scare off birds. Since crows enjoy hiding in shrubs and trees, it’s ideal if you are able to grow a few!

2. Provide Food and Water

Seeds and fruits make up the vast majority of what a crow eats. They love anything with a shell, such as peanuts. Be sure to avoid toxic foods like avocados. You can use a wider array of foods, such as leftover meat or kibble pet food, once they establish themselves as frequent visitors in your yard. 

Since crows are voracious eaters, feel free to distribute extra food if you’d like to win them over. The food must be nutritious, and you should offer a range of samples at first to see what they like.

Because crows require water as well, having a bird bath in your outdoor space would increase its allure as it provides a place for them to drink, bathe, or even relax or wash food. Remember that crows are big birds, so you would want a more robust ledge and a deep bath for them. 

3. Create a Routine

Crows have an excellent memory, are highly intelligent, and can identify faces and sequences. To earn their trust, you have to develop a schedule and be dependable. Once you begin providing food for them each day at a specific time, they will eventually come to regard the area as a reliable source of food. 

In order to let them know when it’s time to arrive and for them to link your yard with food, you can also alert them with a particular noise, such as a crow call or whistle. You can begin presenting yourself once you see them appearing on a regular basis. 

To avoid startling and frightening them away, exercise extreme caution and act in a predictable, collected manner. In the end, they should begin to associate you with tasty treats and pleasant surroundings.

Is It Legal to Befriend a Crow?

Now that you know how you can make friends with crows, should you? It is against the law to possess one as a pet. If you supply food for a crow on a regular basis, it may become reliant on you for its food, which will impair its capacity to survive independently. 

If you relocate, the crow will continue to monitor your new residence and may even pose a threat to the new homeowners by being a bothersome pest. Consider carefully the type of relationship you wish to have with a crow and the possible outcomes for both the bird and you.

Do Crows Bring People Gifts?

Although movie and film depictions of crows finding objects and leaving them as presents for people may be familiar to you, you may be surprised to learn that this actually happens in real life. 

Crows are likely to bring “gifts” to people who feed them. In the wild, they bring things to other crows throughout mating seasons. There is much discussion among experts in animal behavior regarding the occurrence of crows presenting people with gifts. 

Scientists advise against extrapolating feelings from people to animals. But they do leave stuff for people. It may be as a way to thank you for food, or it could be completely unrelated. Crows typically give shiny things that they discovered on the ground as gifts. 

These objects can be anything from old screws to a glittery necklace. 

Summary of How to Befriend Crows