Why do crows leave carcasses in our birdbath?
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Designed to fit in with the landscaping of my yard.
Question by JR: Why do crows leave carcasses in our birdbath?
Our local crows have taken to leaving dead birds and mice in our bird bath. This obviously contaminates the water, but it’s quite facinating to watch them come back for the carcass a day or so later.
Does anyone know why they do this or have any info on this pracice?
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7 Responses to Why do crows leave carcasses in our birdbath?
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would be interesting to know.
how horrible for you!
~ CrazY FroG~
December 31, 2012 at 9:29 pm
Maybe… The crow caught these birds and mice and felt thirsty and forgot to take them with them 😛
Or, The water was contaminated before the birds and mice went to the bath and the drinking of the water killed them xD
The Blade
December 31, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Crows are known as carrion eaters, though they eat fresh meat too. They may like it a little rotted because it is softer and partially digested, so to speak. I know vultures do.
The First Dragon
December 31, 2012 at 10:14 pm
I’ve never heard of this. I just wonder if these are adult birds feeding young?
All I can find is an article on food storing behavior in crows. They tend to store food at times of plenty, before the young hatch. Food stores tend to be covered. This could be a form of this behavior.
Magpie
December 31, 2012 at 10:40 pm
I’ve often had trouble with crows softening up bread in my bird bath, and leaving half of it in there in the process. (I don’t give them the bread, but they bring it from elsewhere).
I’ve always put it down to the idea that they like to soften their food with water. It’s yucky that they are doing it with meat, though!
Maybe they are finding dead animals that are partly dried out, and that might be why they need to soften them up. If it was a freshly killed animal, they might just eat it straight away without soaking it. That’s just a guess.
Kakariki
December 31, 2012 at 10:51 pm
They could be:
+ Softening the food as it may be slightly rotten or hard
+ Storing it
+ Cleaning it, if the carcass is covered in dirt
Fennec
December 31, 2012 at 11:49 pm
JR i don’t know where you are but this is a common practice at least amongst urban crows in Australia. At my current workplace we have sheep grazing on surplus land to discourage snakes & grass fires by keeping grass short. When there was a lot of new factoriesbeing built & land clearing we were getting lots of cooked chicken& chop bones, golf balls & other rubbish in their water trouths. The crows were previously feeding on insects/ mice/ snakes in adjoining paddocks but switched to raiding the industrial garbage bins when paddocks got cleared. Crows dont mind rotting meat but seem to like to wash dirt of their food. Ive watched them many times washing scrapes in water.
To stop them washing and losing their bones in deep trouths which could kill the sheep, we put shallow water containers on sheep shade/rain shelters. Crows then switched to useing these containers as they were shallow and droped food could be reached and eaten. Sheep & crows happy. Food probably also washed/soaked to make softer as well as to improve taste& lower bacteria burden. Less crows localy now because there is less wild food due to factories & most bins now vermin/ bird proof.
Try putting shallow container on ground to encourage crows to leave deeper birdbath alone.- Put up high if cats can reach them. G’day & goodbye Mate from Australia.
Phantom
January 1, 2013 at 12:01 am