Crows "Eating" Stones!

dandii

Hi,

I thought this would be the most appropriate place to ask this....For the past two winters now coming into November, crows have started to "eat " the stones in my back garden! There might be five or six at a time all swallowing stones flying away and coming back for more! They seem to be taking quite an amount of them and I'm curious as to what might be the reason! As i am writing this they are doing it! They seem to swallow one and have the other in their beak and then take off!

Birdnuts

As birds have no teeth they need small stones/grit to break down food in their gizzard:)

dandii

How small are small as the stones they're taking are quite large...most barely fitting in their beaks!

OpenYourEyes

To the best of my knowledge birds are quite fussy about the size of stones they'll swallow for this purpose, so I wouldnt worry about it! They know best!

recedite

Usually the grit birds swallow is only a few mm in diameter, but it could be that they need larger pebbles coming into the winter to grind up nuts and tough berries.
Crows are very smart birds. They drop shellfish from a height onto tarmac to crack them open. I have also heard of some crows that took a dislike to a dog, and used to drop stones onto him whenever they were bored.

Mickeroo

recedite wrote: »

Usually the grit birds swallow is only a few mm in diameter, but it could be that they need larger pebbles coming into the winter to grind up nuts and tough berries.
Crows are very smart birds. They drop shellfish from a height onto tarmac to crack them open. I have also heard of some crows that took a dislike to a dog, and used to drop stones onto him whenever they were bored.

THey're extremely intelligent, particularly Rooks and Ravens afaik, I often feel they're kind of taken for granted which is a shame. They've been recorded using tools quite a few times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwRHIuXqMU

And using a pedestrian crossing/traffic lights to their advantage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0

I'm sure you've probably seen those clips before!

Victor

My father told me of crows who would hang around a main road, especially after grain trucks went by. The younger ones would fly off when traffic came, the older ones just hopped across the centre line. This was all well and good until someone engaged in an overtaking manouvre at that point ...

Scrappychimow

I love corvids , the crows and jackdaws wait around my house every morning for me to put digestive biscuits on the garden wall for them to collect.

dandii

I've heard of them swallowing grit and small pebbles before but these stones are far bigger!most are over half an inch in diameter and some barely fitting in their beaks! It's just strange as they do it constantly for several hours a day!!

Lumi

dandii wrote: »

I've heard of them swallowing grit and small pebbles before but these stones are far bigger!most are over half an inch in diameter and some barely fitting in their beaks! It's just strange as they do it constantly for several hours a day!!

I've watched jackdaws and rooks doing the same thing with the small, beach pebbles from a gravelled section of my garden over the years. As with the OP the stones range 1.5-2cm in diameter so they are sizeable enough.

They seem to arrive enmass, sift through the stones, and pick out the light coloured ones then fly away with them. Over time they fly away with quite a bit of it actually and the feckers take the nicest coloured ones

I've asked quite a few people about this but never gotten a satisfactory explanation. Funnily enough, a friend described the exact same behaviour going on in his garden earlier this week.

I'm just about to topdress the area with some fresh stones so I'll try and get some video of them in action.

recedite

If the crows are carrying away the pebbles, it would be interesting to follow the crows some time. Easier said than done though!

Lumi

I have seen them pushing the stones deep into the lawn on occasion but mostly they fly away with them.

Corvids are exceptionally clever & I'm sure there is a reason for this behaviour. I'd love to know what it is

dandii

I'm intrigued and i will also try and put up a video of them doing it! Once again as I am writing this there are seven of them at it! In the pouring rain I might add! Might give Mr. Attenborough a call

Mycall

The crows on the beach in Schull down here in Wesht Cork are mad for this. None of ur pretty little pebbles tho. These lads are going off with boulders, well maybe not quite This link leads to a great photo and there are more in recent posts on my friend Lisa's blip foto blog. It was her interest that got me googling and onto this thread. In this photo the stone is actually fully in it's mouth pouch (sure there is a name for that). Intriguing...

Lumi

Mycall wrote: »

The crows on the beach in Schull down here in Wesht Cork are mad for this. None of ur pretty little pebbles tho. These lads are going off with boulders, well maybe not quite This link leads to a great photo and there are more in recent posts on my friend Lisa's blip foto blog. It was her interest that got me googling and onto this thread. In this photo the stone is actually fully in it's mouth pouch (sure there is a name for that). Intriguing...

Finally some photographic evidence!! :D

They tend to pilfer the Wexford beach pebble mulch from my garden and the stones they take aren't exactly pretty little pebbles but are much the same size (if not a bit larger) than the pebbles in these photos.
Like yourself, I'd love to know what's going on.....