Few bird species have been persecuted by so many for so long as the crow. Shot, poisoned, trapped, sprayed with chemicals, and even dynamited on their roosts. On the contrary, crow numbers have been increasing steadily, especially here in the east. To understand this phenomenon, you need to understand crows. Crows belong to a very unique family of birds, the Corvidae.
Crows are highly social and intelligent creatures.
They are incredibly adaptive in both food habits and behavior, feeding on Japanese beetle grubs in your lawn sod, raiding a corn patch, and pulling the liver from a road -killed squirrel, all in the course of a good day's foraging. At the same time they are clever and wary enough to know the good guys from the bad. For several centuries man has been his sworn enemy, nevertheless he appears to have held his own, accepting and adjusting himself to every new condition. Chapman's words are as true today as they were then. Consider the crow that nonchalantly pries out the choice cuts from a road kill as cars pass by within inches at 60 mph.