Crows and Pigeons act like family members

[SpiritWriter]

There is a pack of pigeons that live in my neighborhood, they have been around here for years. You can identify the pigeons and tell that they are the same ones by their markings. I can only assume that the crows have also made this neighborhood their home and that they are the same ones I see all the time, but in truth I can't tell one crow from another.

Anyway, the crows go out and look for food for the pigeons. If I throw bread out for them, the crows will call to the pigeons and the pigeons will come and eat. Only after the pigeons are done eating, will the crows come and have some for themselves. They do this all the time, I see them together almost everyday, not only when I feed them. It seems strange to me that this happens. It would seem like the crows would be greedy and want the food for themselves. I have seen crows in other environments intimidate the more timid birds and steal their food, but in this environment they actually help feed them.

It would seem that they have bonded and that the crows truly care about the pigeons.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Still Waters
Removed copyrighted image

[godnodog]

Nice, you should revord it on video and post it here.

[freetoroam]

Hi, not sure it they truly care for the pigeons, but where I live there are many types of birds, there is a similar "who eats first" role with many birds.

But generally, if a crow is really hungry, the pigeon will have to wait, so it may be the crows are not desparate for food. Baring in mind pigeons will eat anything anytime, crows tend to store their food for ron.

Wild birds are very very loyal.......as long as there is food given to them.

My big mistake when I first lived on the boat, was to feed the swans, BIG MISTAKE, one ended up banging the boat for food.

its a nice story if the crows are "caring" after the pigeons, but I suppose just like humans, when the food gets low, the strongest get the food first, so far it seems your crows are getting fed well enough to share.

[SpiritWriter]

not sure it they truly care for the pigeons

of course we cannot truly understand the emotions of birds, but they do call for the pigeons to come eat, so it would appear that they do care about them, or at least care for them.

Edited March 1, 2014 by SpiritWriter

[SpiritWriter]

My big mistake when I first lived on the boat, was to feed the swans, BIG MISTAKE, one ended up banging the boat for food.

I frequently eat at a Vietnamese restaurant down the street and they used to have a seagull that would come knock on the door everyday for food. It was really cute. The owner would go outside and throw him some noodles. He started to bring his girlfriend along after a while, but then just stopped showing up.

[freetoroam]

I frequently eat at a Vietnamese restaurant down the street and they used to have a seagull that would come knock on the door everyday for food. It was really cute. The owner would go outside and throw him some noodles. He started to bring his girlfriend along after a while, but then just stopped showing up.

The seagulls are a nightmare, I would look out of my boat window, see the coot and give it some bread, no gulls in sight...up to that point, suddenly they appear from nowhere, loads of them, the poor coot does not even get a look in...then when all bread is gone they fly off and disappear again...until someone else throws out a crumb and woosh, invasion of gulls again.

I so wish I could this on video, but it happened so quick:

toaster on old boat was near window, one day a duck flew up and pulled the toast out of the toaster as it popped out....it was the funniest and weirdest think I have ever seem from them ducks.

Edited March 2, 2014 by freetoroam

[SpiritWriter]

The seagulls are a nightmare, I would look out of my boat window, see the coot and give it some bread, no gulls in sight...up to that point, suddenly they appear from nowhere, loads of them, the poor coot does not even get a look in...then when all bread is gone they fly off and disappear again...until someone else throws out a crumb and woosh, invasion of gulls again.

I so wish I could this on video, but it happened so quick:

toaster on old boat was near window, one day a duck flew up and pulled the toast out of the toaster as it popped out....it was the funniest and weirdest think I have ever seem from them ducks.

I live in Seattle and down on the pier we have an outside restaurant called Ivar's. It is a tradition to feed french fries to the seagulls. They are very talented at catching the fries before they fall into the water, they are very spoiled too. Once I brought tortillas down there to save money on the fries, and they wouldn't eat them! Its fun for kids.

Once, I was sitting in an outside sitting area eating salsa and chips. The salsa was in a big heavy guacamole bowl. A crow swooped down and carried off my salsa! I couldn't believe it.

Thanks for the bird stories Freetoroam :)

[jules99]

I've seen a young crow take food over to an old one...I wouldnt know if they were family or related but the young looking one definately fed the older/haggard looking one. They also seem regimented, in that food will be available but subordinates will not eat until a higher ranking crow has finished...

[Still Waters]

We have lots of pigeons here too, they come down the front lawn pecking at what they can find. When the wild cherry trees have fruit they'll eat those, we see the branches swaying as they pick them off. One year they built a nest in our tree in the back garden, we used to see them flying in and out of it and when we stood underneath the tree and looked up, we could see one of them sitting on the nest looking back down at us lol. I like the noise pigeons make, we hear them a lot, it's nice.

Seagulls, crows, starlings, robins, we see a lot of birds around here. We don't feed them though - far too many cats roaming around which is a shame. A baby starling got into our attic once which we rescued. Another time we had a hawk caught up in the garden fence, it had been chasing another bird and got its talons stuck in the mesh, by the time we got to the back door to see if we could do anything it had freed itself and we watched it fly off - that was good to see.

My mum always used to put bread out for the birds where she lives, but it was always the seagulls that took it and the other poor wee birds didn't get a look in. Seagulls are so greedy. I've seen crows and seagulls chasing each other in flight, one trying to take food off the other, they gang up on each other.

Another time there was a terrible noise coming from outside the front garden so we went out too see what was going on. Turned out to be a young crow on the grass under our kitchen window with both its parents on the fence close by, they must have been protecting it from something, very vocal anyway.