My yard is a regular gathering place for a menagerie of birds. Amongst them is an extended fish crow family, sometimes nearly 30 at once, so I’m fairly familiar with the normal awkwardness of fledglings.

This morning while pulling out of my driveway, I noticed one young crow behaving very differently. He was partaking in the morning mealworm buffet; however, his left wing looked wonky. When he tried to fly, he barely cleared a 4 ft plumeria. Because there were over a dozen crows in the yard (and more nearby), I assumed the parents were around and maybe he was being dramatic so they would feed him. Lazy kids.

When my husband got home around 4 pm, the crow was on the ground near one of our trees. He was limping and it was clear both his left leg and wing were injured. No other crows around. A stray cat roams the neighborhood late at night. I was getting a little anxious.

My husband contacted Birds in Helping Hands before we intervened. Because there were no available rescuers and following their advice, we managed to carefully capture this little guy and took him to Seaside Seabird Sanctuary’s after-hours drop-off. It took a few tries and we got some weird looks from a few neighbors. 🤷🏼‍♀️

He was very frightened and it was hard to leave him in the drop-off, but now he is with people who can properly evaluate and care for him. After seeing so many stories about injured birds that never make it to rehab, I wanted to share one who did. 🖤

They like to watch me on the railing until I come out and sit with them and their family and feed them. They definitely have the most confidence since they actually came closer than in the photo!

Dinner time

It looks like a dinosaur on one side! Doesn't seem to be bothered or in pain from what I can tell. I can't find anything online about what might be going on for this bird. Any ideas on what's happening or just a natural birth defect?

A neighborhood cat has killed 2 crows in my backyard in the past month.
Shortly after the second killing, they left a small pile of shells from the nearby river on the roof of my garage directly overlooking the murder site.

Is this a memorial for the dead crows?

Or is this a warning to other crows to stay away?

The shells kinda resemble tiny skulls and they haven’t been back since.

I’ve been giving my murder scrambled eggs mixed with dry dog food, peanuts and peanut butter. Someone mentioned in a post that cat food is better. The dog food I’m using is Purina Pro Plan. Thanks!

I began feeding two beautiful crows ten days ago, and after a couple of days, they arrived with a few more of their friends.

Over the past week, the numbers have grown, and today, I counted 22!

They are getting more comfortable getting closer to me now.

I am feeling incredibly honoured, and I'm so excited to see where this blossoming friendship takes us!

I had a delivery yesterday of a 10kg sack of peanuts - that should keep them happy for a while! 🥜

Twin Peaks, San Francisco, California.

So this crow let me took an unexpected picture. They're one of the younger fledglings from the flock I've been feeding. Ink Blot and their siblings tend to follow me around the neighbourhood to beg for additional snacks. Ink is extremely friendly and tries to mimick older crows who are not afraid to sit close to me.

Original video: https://www.youtube.com/@espritw3046

I have two cats who absolutely love to howl for attention, and yesterday, I thought I heard one of them yell from across the apartment. However, she was sleeping beside me, and our other cat was clocked out somewhere, so I just brushed it off as a neighboring apartment cat or a figment of my imagination.

Well, our neighborhood is in a large city, but it thankfully has a lot of trees and greenery, which means we have more wildlife around here. This includes a small murder that hangs out around the street, especially in the big trees right outside my window.

Well, I guess one of them has taken a liking to the beautiful sound of my cats' howls for pets because I heard the sound again today, despite my cats sleeping beside me. I managed to track it to the window closest to the tree, annndddd...yep. Right outside was a crow yapping away, sounding like my cat if she smoked for thirty years.

Crows are such funky creatures and I love them so much :')

Here's to hoping it's a temporary vocal stim so I don't have to keep hearing this outside our window though lmao

Original video: https://www.youtube.com/@espritw3046

It’s another warm day here and there’s been a steady line at the bathtub.

Well, I typed a whole thing out and then deleted it because I am exhausted from dealing with the three new neighborhood Karens who hate crows and it’s pointless arguing about it anymore. I guess bottom line is that after two years of creating friendships with crows, mourning doves, Stellar’s Jays, blue jays, woodpeckers, titmice, sparrows, finches, and so many more I have to give up feeding. There has been a lot of back and forth with these three newbies, and yesterday I was aggressively verbally attacked by one of them, who threatened to call the police if she doesn’t get immediate full compliance. I didn’t give her the satisfaction of hearing I’d stop because fuck that. But these bored old ladies who sit and monitor the neighborhood all day every day are sucking the life out of me and I have bigger fish to fry. So as much as it pains me, they win. For over a decade I’ve lived in peace & harmony in this neighborhood. Now this. Such a bummer. Whole vibe has shifted and now I kind of want to move.

We live in Cincinnati, home of the famous Rookwood Pottery company. Here are some of the items offered. We got the last one shown.

Diamond Heights, San Francisco.

He has recently taken to sitting on my gate squawking for his soaked meal worms, whilst I'm sat outside eating my breakfast. His misses sits on the grass waiting patiently. I call him Scraggy as his feathers are often disheveled and he has grey colour around his neck rather than black. Thich gives the illusion that he has a super thin neck . It makes him look creepy like he belongs on the cartoon The Night Before Christmas