At home in cities, suburbs and rural farmlands, the crow is one of Kentucky’s most abundant bird species. Crows seem to be everywhere, and make their presence known with a raucous call: “Caw, Caw, Caw.”
They are smart, alert, social birds that are challenging and exciting to hunt with shotguns over decoys. There are two species of crows in Kentucky.
American Crow
The species most often seen in Kentucky is the American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), a 16 to 21-inch tall, coal-black bird. They rarely travel alone and usually feed on the ground, eating earthworms and grubs in freshly plowed fields, insects, wheat and corn seeds in farm fields, and fruit. Crows will also eat carrion (road kill), and chicks they rob from nests.
In town, they are just as likely to be eating scraps of fast food on a mall parking lot or garbage along roadways. Crows are best described as omnivorous foragers.
Crow populations in Kentucky are stable, and in recent decades, crow populations have been on the rise across the continent. Their susceptibility to the West Nile virus caused some populations to dip in the early 2000s, but they are rebounding now.
In Kentucky, local crow populations usually begin to swell in the fall as migrants arrive, and family groups intermingle, forming large communal roosts. When these roosts are close to cities, conflicts arise from the noise and mess. Fall migrants come to Kentucky primarily from states to the north.
Roosts as large as 200,000 or more birds have been reported in some states. Communal roosts may remain in one location for a number of years, then shift from place to place, in response to changing food availability and other factors.
Crows.Net tracks the location of major roosts in the U.S. Visit their website here.
Fish Crow
Kentucky’s other species of crow is far less visible. The Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) makes its home in far western Kentucky, and is associated with wetlands, creeks and sloughs along the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
In recent decades the Fish Crow has been extending its range northward and inland, from the Atlantic coast states, and the South, westward into east Texas. Kentucky is on the northern edge of the Fish Crow’s range.
The two species are almost identical, but the fish crow is smaller and has a more subdued, nasal call: “cah,cah….cah,cah.”
When Fish Crows find a good source of food, they may cache the surplus for later. These hiding places can be in grass, in clumps of Spanish moss, or in crevices in tree bark. Nesting adults may use these caches when feeding their young.
In coastal areas Fish Crows are adept at finding and digging up the eggs of turtles. They also harass and steal food from other crows, gulls, ibis, and Ospreys.
Crow Hunting
At one time crows were considered pests, and there were no closed seasons, or bag limits. But, as a member of the jay family (Corvidae), crows are now covered under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The hunting seasons set by states can’t be more than 124 days long, and must be scheduled outside the primary nesting period (mid-March to the end of May).
Kentucky’s 2014-15 crow hunting season dates are: Sept. 1-Nov. 7, 2014, and Jan. 4-Feb. 28, 2015.
A hunting license is required unless the hunter is license exempt, and a Migratory Bird or Waterfowl Permit is not required to hunt crows.
Electronic or mechanical calling devices may be used during the open seasons. Shooting hours are 30 minutes before sunrise until sunset; however, hunters may be in the field before and after shooting hours.
There is no daily or possession limit on crows.
Driving country roads is a good way to find concentrations of crows. Look for flight paths, roosts and feeding areas. It’s usually easy to get permission from landowners to hunt crows.
Flyways are the routes crows fly between roosts and feeding areas. In the afternoons crows often congregate in staging areas before flying in masse back to their roost.
A 12-gauge shotgun, with a modified or improved cylinder choke, is ideal for crow hunting. For shooting over decoys No. 7 ½ shot is the preferred pellet size, No. 6 shot for pass shooting.
Watching crow hunting DVDs are a good way to learn the hunting strategies, and the array of calls used in crow hunting, such as the fight, rally, distress, danger, and look here. Blinds should be natural and well camouflaged, and situated where there’s a good field of fire. Hunters must wear camouflaged clothing head to toe, including face masts and gloves, to prevent being spotted by the crow’s sharp eyesight. The ideal set-up is to have the sun at the hunter’s back.
Full body plastic decoys are the most realistic. In most hunt situations a dozen decoys will work fine.
There are two classic decoy set-ups. The first is a feeding scenario, where a small group of crow decoys are on the ground, with a sentry crow decoy placed on a tree limb above them.
The second is a fight set-up, with a Great Horned Owl decoy on a pole or fence post, with crow decoys surrounding the owl decoy on nearby tree limbs. Crows hate raptors, especially owls, and will harass these birds wherever they find them. Use that weakness to your advantage and you’ll call crows into gun range.
Art Lander Jr. is outdoors editor for KyForward. He is a native Kentuckian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University and a life-long hunter, angler, gardener and nature enthusiast. He has worked as a newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and author and is a former staff writer for Kentucky Afield Magazine, editor of the annual Kentucky Hunting & Trapping Guide and Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide, and co-writer of the Kentucky Afield Outdoors newspaper column.