Date: 3/9/25 12:34 pm From: Kaaren Perry via groups.io <surfbird1...> Subject: [slocobirding] Residential crow feeding
Wondering if anyone might have references to any official materials regarding the downside of feeding crows in a residential neighborhood that I might pass on. We have a neighbor who for several months, has been putting out good size piles of unshelled peanuts in a gully on his driveway to attract the crows. Groups of crows now gather around to feed during the day. We now often have 50 ≈ crows moving in loose flocks around our neighborhood streets on wires, grasses and gardens, some now seen carrying nesting materials. This a fairly recent problem… 6 months? I guess I could knock on their door and share my thoughts but more than likely, I wouldn't be too received.
My thoughts are: 1) The colonial roosting and small and large group feeding behavior of this corvid group is an invitation to spreading bird flu. 2) Crows are notorious nest robbers and we are heading into the breeding season. When conducting breeding bird surveys for 10 years here in SLO county at Sweet Spring Preserve it was all too frequent to observe a crow tearing apart a nest and flying away with eggs and nestlings.
I am looking for some reliable reference that I might send to the address to hopefully enlighten the residents, discourage this species specific feeding practice and hopefully to encourage a more natural diet for our American Crows. Or maybe I'm the only one who might think this is a problem???
BTW I do like Crows! Smart, interesting to watch, lots of research on the species available etc. etc.
