American Crows are shiny, black birds with strong, stout bills. They can be distinguished from Common Ravens by their smaller size, their straight to slightly rounded tails (seen from below, ravens' tails are wedge-shaped), and their higher-pitched calls. Ravens also have more massive bills and longer, shaggier feathers at their throats. American Crows are larger than the closely related Northwestern Crows but have higher pitched voices.

Distribution
American Crows are mostly permanent residents, although they may migrate from northern regions in the fall. Flocks gather in large winter roosts, which may draw some birds short distances from their breeding areas.

Behavior
Outside of the breeding season, American Crows are sociable and form large winter roosts. Crows are intelligent and opportunistic, and they quickly take advantage of new sources of food. They generally feed on the ground and are often found feeding along roadsides and at garbage dumps. They will drop hard-shelled items on hard surfaces such as roads or rocks to break them open. Crows can be aggressive toward other birds, mobbing ravens or raptors in flight.

American Crows are monogamous and form long-term pair bonds. Sometimes one of the offspring from a previous year stays with the pair to help feed the nestlings. Both members of the pair build the nest, which is a bulky stick platform, lined with mud, moss, grass, and feathers, usually in the canopy of a tree. The female incubates 4-6 eggs for about 18 days. She broods the young continuously at first and then helps the male bring food. The young venture out of the nest onto nearby branches at first and begin to fledge at about 4-5 weeks.

Diet
Omnivores, American Crows eat just about anything, including garbage, carrion, seeds, the eggs and young of other birds, marshmallows, and invertebrates.

Habitat
American Crows inhabit a wide variety of semi-open habitats. They can generally be found in any habitat, except unbroken coniferous forest, as long as it has suitable nesting trees. They are usually tolerant of the presence of humans.

Tip: Faking Off Crows
Some hunters construct decoys out of black material to resemble wings. They'll hang these homemade decoys on a bush so they'll flop in the wind. Also remember that when crows respond to a particular sound and get shot at, they'll fly away when they hear that sound again. However, they'll generally come right back to another sound if you switch over to a crow's death call or a single excited crow call. Don't assume that you can't call in spooked crows. If you encounter some crows that have not been called to very much, you usually can call them back in after you've shot at them.

After the crows leave the first initial barrage of shots, change sounds. Experts routinely call crows back to the same general area four times before just by switching calls and using decoys and movement.