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The Crow Horde of San Marcos, California

3,501 views · Published 19 November 2012 · 5:29 · Indexed 30 September 2026

Channel: Melvin Wei · 2012 · Pets & Animals

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Every few months or so I'll see a giant flock of crows looking for insects among the trimmed lawns of San Diego County: I've seen them in San Elijo Hills, Sorrento Valley, Alpine, and today (2012/11/18 16:30) in downtown San Marcos. Based on what I've observed, American crows tend to forage in small groups of 2-6 in the morning on lawns, sit and call in tall trees during most of the day, and gather in huge crowds before dusk. In mid-November here, dusk comes at 16:45. I saw this giant horde of American crows foraging in several empty lawns right next to a busy loud road with cars zooming by within 2 meters of these birds; many of the crows were also acting as sentries on trees and rooftops. It's hard to estimate how many there were in a spread-out formation like this, but I would say this is at least the same flock I saw before in San Elijo Hills, numbering well over 1,000 birds. It's quite the sight to behold, and I've learned that this happens all over the world with crows. It's rumored that all the crows in San Diego gather routinely around dusk to form a swarm that takes off upon sunset to roost in the nearby community of Rancho Bernardo in one particular neighborhood, but that's up for me to investigate and find out later. It's entirely likely that I've seen 3 separate flocks over the last year or two, but it could also be that these American crows forage in different spots to maximize their gathering. The way this foraging strategy make sense in my mind is that by gathering on lawns in such numbers, the crows startle all of the insects living in the grass and what is not caught by one crow will surely head towards another in dense formation. Alternatively, it could be that crows are very sociable, intelligent birds that come together at dusk to bond. I'm assuming these are the Western crow subspecies of the American crow.

Will so many pairs of eyes, and sharp bird vision to go with them, and so many sentries on the rooftops and trees around, it is nigh impossible for any predator to sneak up on these creatures. Crows are wary animals that will not flinch from cars or humans riding bicycles, but once they see a human approaching on foot, they will flee and give a wide birth of 10 meters or greater; even bigger birds such as seagulls are not nearly as afraid of humans as crows are, despite their lag in takeoff time that makes them vulnerable to attack from land mammals.

American crows are omnivorous and will eat insects, carrion, seeds, eggs, baby birds, grains, nuts, acorns, and beached fish. They will eat things humans throw at them but this is extremely rare behavior to establish; crows always ignore the food items I offer them, but at one rest stop along the I-15 freeway from Southern California to Las Vegas in the middle of the high desert I witnessed a small group of crows getting close to humans in a convenience store parking lot and eating a submarine sandwich that was tossed to them. Crows are medium-sized birds, but they fight over human food viciously and chase/fly after individuals that manage to grab the bulk of the food first.

Wild crows live around 7-8 years, but can last for up to 30 years in captivity as pets. It is estimated that American crows are thriving at a population of around 31 million birds across North America, despite human attempts to cull their numbers. American crows are monogamous but form cooperative breeding families of up to 15 birds that stay together for years; offspring from previous seasons will stick around to help rear new nestlings. 

American crows face predation in the egg and nestling stages mostly, but in adulthood also face predation from members of the cat and dog families, as well as from larger birds of prey. Occasionally they get run over by cars while greedily eating roadkill.

Crows are very intelligent birds. When I was a child traveling with my family in Canada we witnessed a crow stealing from a bicycle pouch: the crow landed on the handlebars, then used its beak to unzip a bag in three different directions! It proceeded to open the flap of the container that it had unzipped, open a plastic bag with its beak, and peck at a sandwich inside!

Finally, I would like to note that many cultures have superstitions about crows; everything I have heard is very negative. I remained neutral towards crows throughout my life, deciding that they are neither friendly nor harmful.

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