The American Crow is widespread throughout much of the United States. It inhabits a variety of habitats and is often associated with human-altered landscapes such as agricultural areas and suburban/rural development. The American Crow is an opportunistic feeder so its diet is influenced by local food availability. The American crow is a member of the Corvidae family that also includes Jays and Ravens.

The crow is considered to be a highly intelligent bird species, capable of problem-solving. For example, crows have been observed dropping shellfish on rocks to break them open for consumption. Crows are usually found in isolated, secretive pairs during the breeding season, but often form communal roosts of hundreds or thousands of individuals during the winter. Crows are often most conspicuous when mobbing hawks or owls. Many individuals flock together to harass birds of prey by persistent and raucous crowing, dive bombing, and chasing.

Length: 43 - 53 cm
Physical Characteristics: This bird has a thick black bill, black feet and a squared off tail. The plumage is entirely black in both the male and female.
Voice: Call is a loud, harsh caw or series of caws.

Breeding habitat: the crow frequents a variety of habitats, including farms, towns, fields, coastal areas and forest edges.

Mating system: monogamous; one brood is raised per year, occasionally two in the South.

Nest: both the male and female build the nest of twigs, grasses and bark, and line it with feathers and fine grass. The nest is usually located in a treetop (with conifers being the preferred tree). If trees are not available the nest may be placed in a shrub or hedge, or more rarely, on the ground.

Eggs: There are from 3 to 8 eggs in a clutch. The eggs are bluish-green to olive green and are marked with browns and grays. 41mm (1.6 in).

Chick development: Both parents incubate the eggs for a period of 18 days, or the female may have incubation duties while the male feeds her. The chicks are altricial at hatching. There may be helpers (ordinarily young from the previous year, or even years) who assist the parents in their care of the chicks. The young fledge at 28 to 35 days of age.

Diet: the American Crow is omnivorous. It will eat insects, fruit, grain, small vertebrates, small birds, eggs and nestlings, nuts and carrion. On the coasts it will eat mollusks. It breaks the shells by dropping them on rocks. The young are fed mostly insects.

Parasites: Lice have been detected on American crows in the Park, but not identified.

Conservation Biology: the crow's fondness for corn and other grains has earned it the label of agricultural pest. But, despite humans attempts to exterminate the crow, it is a quite common bird.
The American Crow is a rare cowbird host.

Breeding: The American Crow occurs over the southern half of Canada and throughout most of the continental United States.

Winter: The American Crow is a partial migrant. Those birds breeding in central Canada may migrate to the American Midwest to winter. In the fall and winter this species may form communal roosts of up to thousands of birds. It will travel as far as 50 miles to forage and return to roost at night.

The American Crow is an abundant year-round resident bird species, particularly at low elevations, along the boundaries of the Park, and along Park roads. A survey of breeding birds in the Park, performed from 1996-1999, ranked American Crow as the 9th most common species out of 113 species observed during the breeding season.
Estimates from this survey indicate that overall density in the Park during the breeding season is approximately 0.031 pairs/hectare with highest densities occurring at low elevations.

References:

Alsop, F. J. 1991. Birds of the Smokies. Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, Gatlinburg, TN.

Bent, A. C. and Collaborators. 1996 - 2002. American Crow, In Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds, ed., Patricia Query Newforth.

Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union. 2000. Forty-second supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. The Auk 117: 847-858.

Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union. 2002. Forty-third supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. The Auk 119: 897-906.

Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union. 1998. Check-list of North American Birds: the Species of Birds of North America from the Arctic through Panama, including the West Indies and Hawaiian Islands, 7th ed

Ehrlich, P. R, D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The Birder's Handbook: a Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. Simon and Schuster, Inc., New York.

Elphick, C, J. B. Dunning, Jr., and D. A. Sibley, eds. 2001. The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Gough, G. A., Sauer, J. R., Iliff, M. Patuxent Bird Identification Infocenter. 1998. Version 97.1. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD. http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/infocenter.html.

Sibley, D. A. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Stupka, A. 1963. Notes on the birds of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. University of Tennessee Press.