Crows are highly successful birds found across diverse environments, largely attributed to their intelligence and highly adaptable omnivorous diet. As generalist feeders, they consume both plant and animal matter, which allows them to thrive wherever they settle. Their flexibility means they are not restricted to a narrow set of food items, enabling them to quickly pivot their diet based on what is most readily available. This dietary versatility permits them to exploit resources from wilderness areas to dense urban landscapes.
The Core Natural Diet
In environments free from significant human influence, the crow’s diet is primarily composed of diverse wild-sourced foods that shift with the seasons. During spring and summer, their focus is on protein-rich animal matter, important for breeding and raising young. They actively forage for invertebrates, including earthworms, beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. Small vertebrates like lizards, frogs, and mice are also hunted, alongside the opportunistic consumption of eggs and nestlings from other bird species.
As seasons transition into fall and winter, the crow’s diet shifts toward plant matter and stored resources. They readily consume nuts, such as acorns and walnuts, along with wild fruits and berries. Grains and seeds become a more consistent part of their intake as insects and fresh foliage become scarce.
Adaptations: Scavenging and Opportunistic Feeding
The crow’s ability to capitalize on human presence allows it to supplement natural foraging with a reliable, high-calorie food supply. Their scavenging behavior involves the consumption of carrion, such as roadkill, playing a role in cleaning up the environment. This willingness to consume deceased animals provides a substantial energy boost, especially during lean winter months.
In urban and suburban areas, crows frequently raid improperly secured garbage containers and dumpsters, accessing discarded human food and refuse. This includes fast-food scraps, processed items, and spoiled produce, demonstrating a low level of choosiness when the reward is caloric energy. By exploiting these unintentional food sources, crows minimize the energy expenditure typically required for hunting and foraging.
Safe Feeding Practices: Foods to Offer and Avoid
For individuals who wish to intentionally feed crows, offering appropriate and safe human foods is important for the birds’ health.
Foods to Offer
Unsalted nuts, such as peanuts, walnuts, and almonds, are highly favored and provide healthy fats and protein. Meat scraps, hard-boiled or scrambled eggs, and quality dog or cat kibble are excellent sources of protein that mimic their natural diet. Crows also readily consume grains like corn and various fresh fruits and vegetables, which contribute necessary vitamins and hydration.
Foods to Avoid
Many common human foods pose a direct risk to corvids and should never be offered to wild birds. Foods with high salt content, including processed meats and salted nuts, can lead to neurological problems and dehydration. The entire avocado plant contains a toxin called persin which can be harmful or fatal to many bird species. Other toxic items to avoid include chocolate, which contains theobromine, as well as apple seeds and fruit pits, which contain trace amounts of cyanide.
Specialized Foraging Behaviors
Beyond their flexible diet, crows employ complex strategies to acquire and process food, showcasing advanced cognitive abilities. One observed behavior is food caching, where they store excess food items like nuts and meat scraps in secure locations for later consumption. This practice requires sophisticated spatial memory to recall the location of numerous scattered caches. Caching allows them to manage resource surpluses and ensure food availability during periods of scarcity.
Crows are also known to use tools to access otherwise unreachable food sources. They have been observed dropping hard-shelled items, like nuts and clams, onto hard surfaces or in front of slow-moving traffic to crack them open. Furthermore, some crow species use small sticks or modified leaf stems to probe into crevices and under bark, extracting hidden insects and larvae.