Those blue eyes, that awkward gate, their seemingly constant precariousness, they’re all calling to you to intervene. Here are 5 reasons second guessing that instinct might be in the bird’s best interest.
1) The vast majority don’t need your help. It’s totally normal for baby crows to be on the ground and flightless as long as they’re covered with feathers and appear otherwise alert and mobile. Even nestling crows are usually on the ground on purpose. Not because they are ready, but because their parents have intentionally rejected them for one reason or another. They will die and that’s ok. Part of coexisting with wildlife is giving them the agency to be wild. The story is different of course for species where the survival of individuals may mean the difference between population survival and extinction, especially because these situation are almost always driven by human activity.
2) It’s hard to tell when they’re stressed. Recently, I saw a video on Facebook of a Steller’s jay fledgling in the care of a very well intentioned person. She was giving it gentle strokes with her fingertips, each touch resulting in the young bird turning its head towards its back and opening its mouth. The comment thread filled with ooo’s and awww’s and general comments of encouragement or gratitude for her actions. For me it was like watching an alien attempt to care for a human child, the child recoiling and screaming while its caretakers congratulated themselves on how kind they were being. Having handled baby corvids before, I know what that kind of posturing means, it means “I’m scared and stressed.” To an untrained eye though, it may not look much different than the kind of gaping that means ‘feed me.’ Being stressed to death is a reality for young, or even adult animals, so any handling best be done by experts whenever possible.
3) It’s illegal to rehab crows without a license. You can provide temporary care until you can get them to a licensed facility, but do not attempt to rehab them on your own. Mistakes like the one I just described are a prime example of why the law seeks to protect animals by ensuring they are only raised or rehabilitated by experts. For more information on how to handle them until you can get them to a facility visit my previous post.
4) Imprinted crows do not survive well in the wild. Even if baby crows are receptive to being treated like a pet, doing so is both a legal violation and I would argue a violation of their right to be a wild animal with a healthy fear of people. Of all my daydreams, at the top of the list is having a wild but imprinted crow that follows me around. I even have a name picked out. This fantasy of mine will forever remain just that, however, because it’s too dangerous to allow a crow to become that comfortable with people. All it would take is one cranky neighbor with a pellet gun and it would be over. Not to mention being imprinted on people, instead of crows, denies them access to skills and relationships with other crows that will help them survive into adulthood.
5) It may do more harm than good. The conventional wisdom suggests “well, worse case scenario is I try and rehab this baby crow and it dies, which it would have done anyway so really, nothing’s been lost.” The more we study death in social animals the more we are beginning to realize there may be a cost to prematurely removing ailing or dead animals from their groupmates. Being able to interact with their dead may serve an important role for social animals, and denying them this opportunity may have serious implications in their ability to process that death. So be thoughtful about how slim the chance of survival is. It might be that the kindest, most responsible action is no action at all.
corvidresearch.blog 
Emotive topic. Having to deny our human trait to show mercy can be almost unbearable. A couple of years ago the children of one of our neighbours ‘rescued’ a fledgling crow and they asked me if I could look after it for a week while they went on holiday. I found out later that they had ‘released it back into the wild’ and I am happy to say that I have seen it regularly in the neighbourhood since then. Admittedly it is tamer than the other crows but smart enough not to allow humans to approach too closely. I also noticed this year that it had a mate and I’m pretty sure they were rearing youngsters. I guess this must be an unsual situation?
Nicely said, Su. This IS an emotive topic and I totally respect how difficult the decision to turn a blind eye is. I want my readers to understand that I’m not advocating for them to do so in all situations. I just want people to have all the information when they consider if it’s really in the best interest of the bird. As for your story, I’m so happy to hear your rescue is doing well. There are so many factors that determine how well they reintegrate into the wild so without knowing those it’s hard to say if your situation is unusual or not. In any case it’s certainly one to be very pleased with!
Had another baby corvid case this week from another neighbour. Lots of juvenile jackdaws around us at the moment. The neighbour came to tell us he’d seen ‘a baby crow in distress’. My son and I went to have a look and it was a juvenile jackdaw. It was on the ground and did seem to have problems walking. We told the neighbour to leave it because the parents were up in the trees and knew it was there and would feed it. It did venture out into the road at one stage so we coxed it back into the neighbour’s garden where there were lots of bushes where it could shelter for the night. Hopefully it will stand more chance of survival as it’s ability to fly increases.
I saved like 5 crows so far and released them after. Few of them, field crows, that live in big families (about 200 members), head injury by striking buildings, when they speed cross the city in the fall or early spring. Now I found a baby grey/black coat crow (they usually live in 7 members family) and since our neighborhood has plenty cats on game (not because they are hungry, but for fun as cats do) I took him in. I’m giving him free time (out of cage) so I can see him manage to fly and jump and after a week probably, I’ll see if his parents will accept him again. He making progress day by day and he’s beautiful smart (as all are). During day I made a big cage in the balcony and neighborhood crows (which I feed sometimes and they seem friendly to me – sometimes fly quietly over me in my ways) come and watching him. Hope I’ll be lucky with this one too. I’m trying as much as I can to not bond with him, even is happening anyway. He will stay here, near us for sure, where people not mean to animals / birds as they are in other parts of the country (I live in Romania). I’m acting this way, because when I can help I just do it and I can not stand peacefully to see how a creature die or has no chance in front of me. Even animals/ birds help each other sometimes in odd situation. Life is magic.
I’ve rescued 7, and all but 5&6&7.have been released..the one that my son is holding ( white t shirt holding a baby crow) had tumors on her..we gave her love and she died quietly in my hands instead of being picked on or killed by other crows…crows are so amazing
Grandmotherraven, I think it’s great you care about crows so much. We just disagree about the best way to show it 🙂
Hi Kaeli _ I’ve noticed several newly fledged crows around here sheltering in the space at the edge of roads between the curb and parked cars. Sometimes they’re right under the tires. I just wrote an Instagram post urging people to check around their tires before driving off. But then, of course, the question is — what do they do if there is a baby crow there. Should they move it just a few feet to a safer spot?
Under the nearest bush is best, provided there’s one within 20ft or so
Thanks, Kaeli!
Pingback: Fledgling Alert | The Urban Nature Enthusiast
hello
there is a baby crow outside my office that is constantly calling (for its mother?). it tries to enter the door (or fly to the window and keeps hitting the glass, thus we have moved away from that part of the office). If someone leaves the office it comes quite close and almost seems that it want attention. I put some water out for it (which it seemed to like) and some crackers but it could not seem to pick them up in its beak. Am really not sure what to do.
Leave it be. It’s just sheltering by the building which is normal.
I think you should take it or ask for help of any wild care organization. If his parents not around anymore (different reasons or they sometimes just abandon their babies if too many to feed) he will die starving near you – which is pretty cruel. He need to be feed – like throw food into his beak when he’s open it wide at you. He will do that (open beak for food) to any other creature – even cats, because he needs help!
Not sure who gave you permission to use this picture…I know neither my son or myself dis
Apologies, about that. With your permission I’ll put it back up but for now it’s been removed from the article.
Coming to the rescue of one in need defines our humanity. Where do you think it is acceptable to begin our callousness ???
The whole point of the article is that it’s pretty hard for the average person to effectively identify when these animals are in fact in need, and that that inability puts them in greater danger of death. So to me, it’s the hubris of stealing healthy babies to satisfy our own sense of saviorism that’s the callous move.
God damm it. I looked everywhere for information about this subject and now 2months later just read that I have done everything wrong. I found a baby crow, unable to move with very little feathers, he was being harrased by a squrell. I took him in, now I see he can almost fly but is unafraid of humans. I have only let my son and a friend see him and help me care for him. What do I do? I was going to let him go as soon as he can fly every day I take him to the area I found him and let him run around for a couple hours. Only once has 5 other crows came to see us. It was magical and I thought it was his family. They left after 10 minutes or so. Now I bring him 2 times a day out. I don’t know what I should do. Have I condemned him?
Hi Robert, I’d suggest reaching out to trained rehabbers about how to move forward. My favorite resource are the folks are Corvid Isle. You can find them here: https://corvid-isle.co.uk/corvid-care
I just found the beautiful baby crow we had been watching for weeks in its nest with the parents, dead in my driveway. I’m so upset. I noticed nothing unusual about its development, parents had been attentively tending to it, feeding it and I noticed a few days ago it looked like it was getting ready to fly. We have a lot of other birds around (magpies) and I noticed a number of feathers in a pile in our yard, but then I have no idea how the baby ended up outside our yard that has a high fence all the way around it. The baby had a bit of blood on its head so now I’m wondering if it flew over the fence and ended up on the road being hit by a car. The parents appeared to be trying to help it but sadly nothing could be done. I feel awful, wishing there was something I could have done to prevent this poor little bird suffering. This pair of crows breed every year in our tall gum tree and this is the first time something terrible has happened to a baby. I hope they will recover from this.
Pingback: POLA ASUH BURUNG GAGAK – Jenius Cara Alkitab
I was in the process of rescuing a baby crow yesterday, but read your advice to leave it alone. It was dead this morning.
Hi Pat, that’s too bad. About half of all baby crows this year will die and it seems the one you encountered was on the unfortunate side of this statistic.