Food

Crows eat a wide variety of food, including: carrion, insects and worms, grains and seeds, fruits, nuts, birds’ eggs and nestlings, fish (which they often catch themselves) and molluscs. Crows are also capable of catching and killing live prey such as mice and small adult birds although they tend not to do this unless food is scarce – crows much prefer easy options when it comes to food!

You may be lucky enough to get them feeding from your bird table or garden. They do appreciate table scraps – especially in winter when food is scarce.

The way in which crows extract the meat from molluscs is quite impressive. They pick them up and drop them from a great height onto rocks to smash them open, or hold them with their foot and smash them by holding a rock in their beak, hitting the shell with force repeatedly.

There is also a very smart group of crows in Japan that drop nuts in their shells from a great height into the path of oncoming cars and vehicles so that they are smashed under the tyres. They have even learnt to use the pedestrian crossing so that it is easier to claim their reward – the crows have watched and slowly worked out that this is the safest way to avoid the traffic! No kidding! There is actually recorded footage of this behaviour. If you are not convinced, take a look here.

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