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Writer's pictureTerri Pendleton

A Murder Most Fowl


Just in general, crows are really effing cool. They are super smart, being one of the only birds known to use tools to get food. They live in awesome extended crow families for years, the kids sticking around to help raise the next round of babies. They are omnivores so they will eat just about anything, but they are also really skilled hunters and even eat a ton of garden pests. And, if you happen to keep chickens like we do, you start to get a real soft spot for crows.


You see, crows are insanely territorial, and they are crazy up front about it. If other birds they consider a threat come around, they are ON IT. Luckily, their threats are usually also my chickens' threats, so they basically serve as secret guard dogs in the sky. Plus, not only are they vigilant, but they are also super loud. It's easy to know when there's something going on out there.


This is especially helpful because we don't keep any roosters to protect our flock, and goats are notoriously unreliable as chicken protectors. So when a hawk or eagle or something comes around, the crows are instantly on the job, and our girls are quickly alerted to get under cover. The crows will also go after the other birds and chase them off. It's pretty impressive.



Lately, we've had a bunch of turkey vultures hanging out in our trees. Not sure what's attracting them, pretty sure it's not the chickens. Maybe there's some good dead stuff out in our woods. But crows don't like vultures any more than they do hawks, so they constantly chase them away.



It's impossible to miss the crows alerting to something. Crows are always kind of loud, but when there's something out there, they are just ridiculously insistent. I was able to capture just a small sample earlier while the vultures were flying around.



So thank you, crows, for being so accidentally attentive to our girls. Even if you aren't particularly discriminating. Good birds.

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