For the last few months, on Sundays when I’m home, I’ve been feeding crows in the park. I’d read that they recognise people who feed them, so I wanted to see if this was true.
There are two distinct populations of crows at the park, though I didn’t know this when I started. There’s a group of ~50 by the lake, and another group of ~30-40 that hang out on the field. There are also a few scattered crows that don’t seem to belong to any larger grouping. Once I’d learned to recognise a few of the crows in each group, I realised I didn’t see them in the other group.
I’m feeding the crows with a mixture of shell-on peanuts and dried mealworms.
Lake Crows
The population by the lake took very little encouragement to investigate the peanuts on the first feeding attempt. I threw a few nuts out towards a half-dozen crows on the grass, as soon as they hopped over to look and realised it was food, almost the entire population flew down from the trees and waited at a distance to see what would happen. I threw more nuts, favouring the birds closer to me, or those that had just missed a nut. It didn’t take long before all the nuts were gone and the crows were squabbling over the scraps. Peanut shells biodegrade quickly on damp ground, so there’s no littering issue.
A week after the first feeding test with the lake crows, I visited again, this time with nuts and mealworms. The crows came down from the trees quickly once I threw a few nuts out and really seemed to enjoy hunting for the mealworms in the grass. By the third visit (two weeks after the second), the lake crows flew down before I started throwing the nuts. This is now their behaviour when they see me, but only if I’m carrying the bag with the nuts – if I don’t have the bag, the crows don’t seem to bother with me. I’m now on the 6th feeding visit, and the lake crows seem very trusting, with some individuals coming within arm’s reach to await a nut.
Field Crows
It took me a couple of weeks to realise the crows on the field were a different group to the ones by the lake, the group size is smaller, and the birds are more widely scattered when looking for food or resting.
The first feeding attempt was ignored until I walked away, then a few birds descended to investigate, followed by about twenty more. I’ve only fed these crows three times, the latest being today. They are more wary and wait for a few more inquisitive birds to hunt down the thrown nuts before they all come over. They maintain more distance from me than the lake crows ever did. It will take another few weeks before I’m sure whether they recognise me.
For the cost of a £1 bag of nuts and the occasional £3 bag of mealworms, it has been a fun way to spend half an hour or so on a Sunday, observing how the crows interact with each other, the pigeons and squirrels, that also try to make off with the nuts. A few crows are distinctive enough that I can recognise them on sight – not an outcome I expected.