Bad Crow Behaviour

corkproducers

Recent ive noticed that when having a game of fetch with my dog in the green across the way from my home, a crow keeps swooping for my dog and squaking.

Its only in the last week this has being happening, and i was told that another labrador of the same colour was being swooped upon by this crow, possibly a female.

My guess was that they had a nest down in low in the backgarden of the house adjacent to the field, in one of the trees, as my dog would be near their wall when playing.

At first i thought he or another dog may have done something to provoke attack but ruled it out after the neighbour told us that they believes there is an injured crow nesting in their roof.

Today, ive seen them doing the very same thing in the driveway of our home, to our dog, and to even some of the neighbours, even though we're across the road from house the nest is, they seem to be defending their terrority, a fair distance.


The neighbour cant sleep because of all the squaking going on at 6 in the morning, i woke up to it myself a few days ago and apparently its the crows fighting with the starlings, and magpies. Theres fierce comotion alltogether going on, very loud squaking from different species.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm#attack

From that site i see that maybe it could be one of the young that has failed to leave the nest, or has problems flying.


The neighbour was contemplating on getting rid of the nest, probably professional due to the lack of sleep, but im thinking it might be a bit dangerous to do so.


My father told me when he was younger, he saw hundreds of crows above a house, after one crow had died.

He said the familys dog picked up the dead crow in its mouth in the garden, and every crow start swooping in on the dog attacking him, and pecking him, until the owner managed to call the dog inside!

It was like a scene from "The birds" he said!

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts on the matter?


I havent seen the crows peck a human yet, they come down to about a foot above peoples heads and withdraw, including the dog.

But im just concerned about the safety of children in the neighbour hood, or poeple bringing babies in fron the car, in case it escalates into pecking peoples heads, and risking having their eyes taken out!

Would it be best to leave it pass, or to have the neighbour get some pest control in, or would that just make the attacks worse?

corkproducers

Im thinking that maybe the neighbour might be wrong about the fledgling being injured, an is just finding it difficult to fly like they all do at that age.

So best to leave it off a week so the it learns to fly properly, and the parent should stop swooping down on us "predators!"

gerky

I'd be fairly sure its just that their young are fledging and their trying to be good parents by keeping possible dangers away from their young.

If you can stick it out for another while they should settle down.

Try and not let your neighbour go near them as they should settle in a short while and their just being good parents.

corkproducers

Just an update on this,

the fledgling was indeed injured, it was spotted hopping around beneath the shed.

A few days later it died outside the house in the green, and that stopped the attacks.

There absolutely no interference either, the dies days were up.

gerky

Glad to hear it worked out.

boneless

Just a point; does it happen on sunny days and does the dogs collar have a shiney name disc or something on it? I ask because jackdaws go for my dog when the sun catches his disc.

I had the same problem one day on parade in Collins Barracks! The jackdaws were after my shiney brass cap badge ! The CS pished himself laughing!!

gerky

boneless wrote: »

Just a point; does it happen on sunny days and does the dogs collar have a shiney name disc or something on it? I ask because jackdaws go for my dog when the sun catches his disc.

I had the same problem one day on parade in Collins Barracks! The jackdaws were after my shiney brass cap badge ! The CS pished himself laughing!!

:)I actually saw this happen to a woman before, they took a fancy to her watch, if only I had a camera with me.:)

corkproducers

boneless wrote: »

Just a point; does it happen on sunny days and does the dogs collar have a shiney name disc or something on it? I ask because jackdaws go for my dog when the sun catches his disc.

I had the same problem one day on parade in Collins Barracks! The jackdaws were after my shiney brass cap badge ! The CS pished himself laughing!!

It was actually jackdaws, but no there wasnt anything shiny at all!
Just protecting theyre young that was dying.

Thats funny though!

gerky

corkproducers wrote: »

It was actually jackdaws, but no there wasnt anything shiny at all!
Just protecting theyre young that was dying.

Thats funny though!

They do tend to be very dedicated parents.