None of this applies to crows. They're very happy to eat our rotting corpses and day old vomit. So feeding them can be an adventure if you try hard enough.
I tried that once. I fed a bunch of crows some walnuts while sitting by a river, and it was fine. The next day I came back, I fed crows at the same spot, and soon a murder of other crows came and attacked the crows I just fed. Not even just lightly nabbing them, but hacking down on them continuously until I broke up the fight.
You're supposed to use McDonalds fries, and some light rock-throwing toward the opposing faction. Traditionally this is how murder-crows have been trained since at least 2013. Total process is a few weeks.
Crows are social animals, and it would be very strange for the two factions to not intermingle (let alone just observe) and know what was really going on. Also they are opportunistic animals, and won’t give up the chance to get a treat even if they consider you an enemy; where I live the crows consider me a threat and caw loudly and angrily peck at plants and the windows if they see me, but will take any food that I leave outside.
The crow war is a good story, if only a bit suspect.
Whomever came up with that nonsense about cockroaches inheriting the smoking remnants of the earth we leave behind have no idea.
"If its a rook its a crow ..." Crow are mostly singletons, rooks are the social largish, black corvid. By social, I mean bird form of Peaky Blinders.
In the park opposite my house there are many large, mature trees. Several of them are home to rival gangs of rooks. There are also many magpies and some jays and some crows. The magpies seem to spontaneously form mobs but mostly couple up and do small scales raids on smaller birds if they run out of other food or for the hell of it. Jays tend to be more circumspect and I rarely spot them being nasty. I suspect they are more like assassins.
Corvids are extraordinary birds. They don't have the weaponry of hawks, so seemed to have developed intelligence and a really strong stomach instead.
Mind you the seagull (herring gull) is an even larger "crow" with amphibious capabilities. I lived in Plymouth (Devon) for some years and worked on the Barbican, so dealt with a lot of seagulls. I never got crapped on and never had a burger or chips stolen from me.
Wind forwards a fair few years. I'm doing an IT related job and am in Bristol Parkway railway station, on platform munching sandwiches during a lunch break. A gull swoops in from behind me and grabs a sarnie from my hand.
The skill and precision of the steal was remarkable. I've also seen them glide in, slow up and briefly hover over a victim, drop down and grab with their beak and then fly vertically upwards and escape. You have to admire the sheer strength of these birds. They are largely designed for soaring and gliding. Look at the aspect ratio of their wings - they are long and quite thin - more like a glider than a fighter. I suppose their association with the sea and fishing has encouraged evolving strength. Pulling a fish out of the sea is hard work. They can furl those gliding wings for bursts of speed and they have the sheer strength to do VTOL. Unlike a hawk, they do not have talons, nor a hooked beak to grab, rip and tear. Their beak instead is designed to cut things in half or cut bits out.
I could, but won't, witter on about the peregrine falcon. They are quite fast and successful.
Pigeons (rock doves) will probably have the final say after Armageddon and will clean up any corvid, and seagull waste. Including those that found cockroaches unpalatable.
Probably territorial disputes. I bought a feeder and I'm hanging it right outside/below my balcony (so birds can eat without pooping on my balcony). I buy hulled sunflower seeds, 10kg, every month just for the feeder. My typical 'customers' are House Sparrows that I try to keep alive through the winter. The (three) crows on my block are cool with them, and let them live around here. When pigeons fly in though, or once we had some ducks resting and trying to feed on my feeder, OH BOY, the crows no-like-big-birds.
Sidenote: because of the weird position of my feeder, only one bird can eat at-a-time. House Sparrows being smart and loving do the following.. one goes to my feeder and shoves/throws down seeds, so he/she eats straight from the feeder, and a bunch of others eat the seeds falling on the sidewalk.
Come to Austin. We have loud, annoying, fearless, and rude grackles who will leap up on your outdoor table and fight you for your lunch. They're no crows, to be sure.
Crows are smarter. I saw a crow chowing down with its buddies after it ninja'ed inside a mechanic's shop to steal their sunflower seeds from atop their toolbox. That it both identified a package containing food it liked and knew when humans were watching, formulated a plan, and executed it successfully demonstrated significant intelligence.
Reportedly, one can befriend crows as well as crows supposedly hold grudges.
Narrowly on the matter of “clean feeders”, I’d recommend people (particularly of interest to those in the UK) check out Finches Friend. They make feeders designed to avoid the spread of disease (primarily trichomonosis) and their blog posts are full of related information.
Tip for New Zealand bird feeding - native birds feed on nectar (sugar/honey water) and not seeds which are primarily consumed by introduced / invasive species.
just plant native plants that have seed heads and don't dead head them once they're done flowering. your neighbor will think your garden is ugly, but they won't have many birds in their garden.
We plant sunflowers and zinnias to get lovely visits from hummingbirds (and bees and butterflies) in the early to mid-summer and jays and finches coming for the seeds in the fall.
no, that is false. the seedheads sit on the stalk through the winter, providing bird food through meager times. that has been my experience at least, in both a warmer climate and a colder climate.
Didn’t see this in the article, but having a thriving bird population is great for pest control as well! They keep all kinds of bugs in check, so less need to spray stuff, etc.
Sadly it was made illegal in our area and our neighbour actually reported us. One day they were actively bringing in bus loads of foreign tourists to feed the birds, the next they're knocking on our doors telling us to stop or get a fine.
Also, if you're curious what birds are coming into your yard, I recommend the Merlin Bird ID App from Cornell University: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
I really dislike when one problematic neighbor feeds crows. She has ended up attracting a massive group of them regularly, and it ends up causing a nuisance for everyone else who has to put up with constant noise from the crows and also trash (since they like to retrieve random things and leave them all over). Folks who decide to feed wildlife - please be considerate of others around you. Wild animals are wild, and they can figure out how to survive on their own.
I feed my neighborhood crews peanuts pretty regularly, they know me and my girlfriend and are quick to show up in the morning when we have the bag of peanuts. Its fun
We don’t feed the birds directly, but we do have a fountain the local birds greatly enjoy. We make it a point that algaecide we use is bird safe.
From finches to crows, they all seem to enjoy the running water in our ad hoc birdie bidet. Once or twice a year we get a reenactment of “The Birds” when 10+ rather large crows descend for a spa day.
One of the best things I've done recently was install bird feeders that hang from the soffits of my house. My main level is on the the top floor, and seeing all the birds while I'm at work or on the sofa is such a joy. They keep me, my cats, and toddler entertained... but having to refill every week gets expensive
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