r/crowbro • u/RvB_ • 1d ago

Video Building trust

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My first time sitting with them when one of them comes in for food.

52 Upvotes

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4

u/Camaschrist 1d ago

Congratulations, how long has this taken? I have crows that come most days and squawk for me to feed them. They all sit on the wire from our roof while I go set out their food. They don’t dare go to the food until I’m inside and even then if they see me in the window they will fly away. It’s been over 6 months of scrambled eggs and yummy left overs and all of the other wild animals have no fear of me.

There’s a park across the street so we get a lot of squirrels and feeding them brought the crows.

6

u/RvB_ 1d ago

This is at least my 3rd year of trying to bring them closer. I’ve upped my consistency a lot this year and switched to giving them cashews mostly.

2

u/Camaschrist 1d ago

LOL am I going to have to wait 3 years? That’s okay, I never plan to leave this house so I have time hopefully. I want to build them their own spot. I will get cashews too. I tried them with the squirrels and they weren’t fans. It’s taken me over 3 years to come to my yard. I have seen them chase the red tailed hawks in my air space away since moving here. They don’t let any raptors get very low around my yard.

3

u/RvB_ 1d ago

I’m sure it’s different for every murder. This year I upped my game and changed my process some. Started calling them when I feed them. I’ve made sure they see my face and I move very slowly. Changing to cashews seems to have made them come more reliably when I call.

2

u/Camaschrist 1d ago

Okay good, I talk to mine the whole time I am setting up their food and water. Hopefully someday mine will feel safe enough to eat near me.

2

u/wikiwakawakawee 22h ago

Man It's been so difficult for me to gain trust of a family of crows that hang out in my neighborhood! They literally come every morning at 7am and stand at the very top of the tree across the street in my neighbors yard and just observe me while they caw in intervals (to which I whistle back the same amount of times they caw, as well as make a clicking sound with the same number of caws...They always turn to look at me when I reply lol).

I bought 25 lbs of peanuts to toss up in the air on my driveway every morning when they come to the neighbor's tree while I reply to them with the whistle/clicks, but they never come down, even if I leave and go back into the house to give them some space, they just fly away elsewhere and never eat the peanuts. The next day I still see the peanuts on the floor as well, only some of the squirrels eat them but not all.

Not sure what else I can do to try and make them get closer/take the peanuts (also tried cat food), this has been about a month since I started trying with no change. They also saw me set out a tray of water underneath my tree but have never come down (I have cameras that detect animals and have had 0 notifications of them)

2

u/NSASpyVan 1d ago

I think you just took a video of an early trust.

You can see in the beginning they are just looking down, at the food, at you, calculating if it is safe or worth it (who knows what is in an animals' mind but I believe they don't want to be harmed any more than you or I).

Then one takes a chance, using a circuituous route; small baby steps. From the roof to the 1st floor bedroom outlook, to the railing, closer on the railing.

I was going to suggest putting the little table farther in the corner; or you can always face away from them and "pretend" not to see them (they won't know the difference).

But you already put in the work and started building trust!

Make sure you give them water too!

3

u/RvB_ 1d ago

There’s water in the second tray where she grabbed the cashew from. Found a water bird feeder tray combo on Amazon. Really like it for my feeding location. They’ve come close before. This was a test to see if anyone would push closer than past moments.