Feeding the crows

We have some neighbors that live behind us... a family with some extended family as well.
One adult person of that family (I believe not english speaking) likes to set out large foil pans (such used for cooking the thanksgiving turkey) every day, heavily filled with what I presume to be "table scraps". This person has been doing this for two or three months now. She has befriended a large band of crow friends that show up every day now. At least 20 crows show up on a regular basis... and the crowd is growing as word gets around to the crow community.

we hate this. Soon it will be Crow Woodstock in our backyards

We have since lost all of our blue bird friends, the cardinals and the yellow finches that used to fly and live in our gardens among our bunch of houses.

Not only do I find this distressing but I would think somewhat unsanitary.

I have gone over to the house and rang the doorbell, knocked a few times but no one answers. So, at this point I have not been able to calmly discuss my concern with them.

Any thoughts?
Should I just... forget about it.

 

Get a fake owl or raptor.

 

I certainly wouldn't be happy about my blue birds, cardinals and finches leaving, but crows are actually fascinating birds. I know an old woman who used to feed a band regularly and they were amazing. Crows can learn to talk, believe it or not. Anyway... not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure. But I can understand that person's interest in feeding and attracting them. They're pretty interesting when one stops to get to know them.

 

They're VERY noisy birds tho....

 

Yes... but they pretty much fly in, chow on the groceries, then take off don't they? They don't hang around all day, do they?

I dunno... I just would have a hard time telling one person they're free to feed the hummingbirds, but another person isn't allowed to feed crows. I know they're very different, I know the noise level is different, but still... some people like to provide water for the foxes and others might flip out if they saw one wander into their yard.

 

Last year there was a crow that seemed to love to hang out on my roof and make it's loud call for several hours in the morning starting at daybreak. It was quite annoying. It's the only bird around here that I still hear indoors even if the windows are shut. I'd have to say I would be fairly frustrated if my neighbor were inviting these giving me a daily wakeup call at daybreak.

 

Can't disagree with that!

 

Corneel Univ. has a great ornithology dept. Check out this website
www.birds.cornell.edu/crows

Susanne Ortmann
Naturalist

 

I have three crows that visit briefly every day. They've been coming around for 3 years (I think they're the same crows). They are fascinating birds and darn near the size of a chicken, and yes they are extremely vocal. I would suggest that if the problem has grown and droppings have overtaken neighbors decks and fences then you may have cause to ask them to stop or at least limit the feedings to once every few days. Most of the crows will move on altogether.

 

I spoke with the neighbors last evening.
They said they would ask their relatives to stop putting the food out. They have two women and one very old man (I assume relatives/non-english speaking) they are at the house all day and I guess they are the designated cook/cleaning and bottle washers.

I read that article there by cornell. Sorry. I do not agree, perhaps in the areas they did the studies they had different results. Usually this time of year the gardens are full of the little blue birdies playing house in the houses we have for them and the finches munching on the seeds and the robins playing in the bath. Not this year. The crows strut around all day in all of the gardens on our street (behind the crow feeders) the crows pick up food, drop it on our decks and then consume it, poop on the decks (not to be confused with poopdecks) and then they fly around. We do not have 3 crows. Here it is more like 10 or 12. When the food arrived they would stand on house top and call to all the crows, soon the yard is flooded with them.

Anyway. I hope this is the end. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I do not think crows need help finding food or to be fed with the aid of humans.
They are big smart birds, they can keep busy enough going through people's trash and hanging around a trash dump somewhere.

Thank you everyone for your interesting comments and suggestions. T8erman, you always have genius ideas. Having a truck load delivery (like on of those double UPS trucks ) of fake raptors and owls seems like a serious possibility.

 

Good luck! Having all those crows would definitely annoy me! Kind of reminds of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds". Scary movie......