If it can't find mice or voles to eat, lizards, insects, or even garbage will do. In Native American stories coyotes are clever and tricky. This reputation is based on fact. Coyotes may scan the sky for ravens flying in circles. Coyotes know that the birds often hover over a dead animal, so finding the birds frequently leads to finding a free meal.
Coyotes are clever enough to trick other animals.
A coyote might leap about crazily near a group of birds to distract them, then its partner might sneak up on the birds and seize a few of them for dinner. People have helped coyotes to spread across North America. Wolves eat many of the same small animals that coyotes do. With the wolf practically gone in many areas, the coyote has quickly moved in. Some coyotes kill calves and lambs on people's ranches and farms.