Crows

Crows typically describe an all-black bird with a croaky call or fictional characterizations based off of them. In real life crows are considered members of the genus Corvus, however not all corvuses are crows. Crows are smaller, usually the size of most other "medium" passerine birds like American robins and pigeons. While most are all black, some are not, such as the Cape crow and hooded crowhttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crow&oldid=1117414565. Those that are deemed black are often iridescent, and thus in real life are seen in shades of black, dark blue, purple, and dark green. Some crows have brown eyes, while others have golden eyes. In media they are most often portrayed with black eyes, but I don't think golden eye depictions are unknown. It's interesting that they usually have black eyes, as their dark, Halloween or graveyard depictions would go well with their yellow eyes, along with other dark creatures like cats, foxes, and wolves. Crows are one of the animals children learn of early on in Western cultures and are famous.
They are often confused with ravens; and while they are viewed as distinct creatures they still share the same cultural roles and portrayals. Ravens may be viewed as slightly more graceful, majestic, or more "dark" than a crow, but not necessarily. Crows may be viewed as more aggressive or dark than ravens, but not necessarily. Groups of crows can be called a murder or a mobhttps://birdfact.com/articles/what-is-a-group-of-crows-called, whereas a group of ravens are an unkindness or conspiracyhttps://www.birdwatchingusa.org/what-is-a-group-of-ravens-calledhttps://snooplion.com/what-is-a-group-of-ravens-called/#r. Still dark and violent, but potentially less so.
Scarecrows are designed to keep crows away from crops. Crows are back-and-forth portrayed as being afraid of scarecrows to perching on them. Crows are often portrayed with their mob, being seen as social birds. 
In most Western depictions crows will have started with influence from carrion crows and perhaps hooded crows and their hybridshttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hooded_crow&oldid=1114045395. However as it grew into the west, American depictions would have added influence from Corvus brachyrhynchos and fish crows. A good portion of its association with vile actions can be derived from carrion crows, as they used to eat human corpses from battlefields and hangings. While other crows may eat carrion, it seems to be on a more cultural basis- crows in some areas will hunt or eat carrion, others won't. 
Sometimes crows are portrayed as less signs of malevolency and more comically and intelligentlyhttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CleverCrows. In Dumbo, they laugh raucously at Dumbo and his ability to fly, but they are clever enough to help him do it. Crow calls may be seen as resembling laughter. In real life crows are very intelligent, along with other Corvids.
==See also==
* Crows & Ravens
* Ravens
* Blackbirds
==References==