You can put nuts, popcorn, fruit, and seeds outside for
Fruits and Seeds
Seeds and fruits make up nearly three-quarters of the American Crow's diet. This includes: corn, wheat, oats, chokecherries, Poison Ivy, pistachios, grapes, Red Osier Dogwood fruits, Bittersweet Nightshade berries, pecans, and watermelons, among other things.
Dried pet food is among their favorite but a cheaper option is whole unshelled peanuts. They also love eggs, tater tots, meat scraps and other nuts.
Crows and ravens have a particular liking for grapes, soft fruits, potatoes, nuts and grains. They remove fruit directly from trees, land on trellises which collapse under their weight, and despite their size, can perch directly on stalks of grain, snapping off plants such as wheat and sorghum.
If your friendship with crows is based on food they remember your generosity and bring their friends. Lots of friends. They can be quite demanding and don't understand when you stop feeding them. Not everyone appreciates this.
I think this behaviour would come under the umbrella of corvid allopreening which usually involves a crow or raven gently (more or less) combing through their partner's feathers. This solicitous behaviour strengthens the pair bond between them, and helps to keep those very important feathers in tip top condition.
Wild crows are not known to create or display art. But they do occasionally leave behind objects like keys, lost earrings, bones, or rocks, for the people who feed them, a behavior that John Marzluff, conservation ecologist and Swift's colleague at the University of Washington, calls “gifting.”
Like other successful urban wildlife, crows survive in part by eating our food. Often that means eating whatever they find in our trash, including processed foods not found in nature. (Learn why crows are among the smartest birds.)
*Feed them something healthy—unsalted peanuts, with or without the shells are recommended by the crow experts themselves. *Don't throw the nuts AT them, and don't feed them too much. These are wild birds accustomed to gathering their own food—so a few peanuts are plenty.
Crows enjoy treats such as dog food, hardboiled eggs, or even something as simple as leftover bread (nothing with high sugar content). Always include healthy food choices such as unsalted nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, and unprocessed meat. Although crows love junk food, it is not the best option for them.
Avocados are toxic to crows.
The resplendent quetzal is a rare exception in that it can not only tolerate avocados, but is considered a crucial seed distributor of the plant. So next time you're considering sharing your Chipotle leftovers, make sure you didn't order extra guac.
Adult carrion crows seem to tolerate cheese relatively well, and in fact, they quite often actually enjoy a cheese snack. This is most likely due to the fact that as carrion eaters these birds are better adapted to the broad variety of man made food sources, and are therefore more tolerant than other bird species.
Offer Food and Water. The way to earn any wild animal's trust is by feeding them. Crows are opportunistic omnivores, and they eat almost anything from insects and berries to pet food, roadkill, and vegetables.
Water is a crow's best friend! Another great way to get crows to visit your yard is to provide a consistent water source. Crows will not only use it to keep hydrated but also to bathe and stay clean. The best way to offer water is to buy a bird bath.
McGowan has been encouraging humans to feed crows for decades. But he cautions that there are ways for this practice to go wrong: “What happens is that people get too into this. And it makes the crows a nuisance.” Leaving out too much food can lead crows to mob your neighborhood constantly.
Crows are very social and can even bond with humans.
Like all birds, crows don't want anyone getting close to their nest, their eggs, or their babies. Humans don't get a free pass. Get too close, you might get mobbed. A territorial crow may swoop down on you repeatedly until you get out of town.
That actually is good advice. There's a University of Washington study that looked at this, and we know that crows are very attentive to gaze. They don't seem to be responsive to facial expressions, but they do pay attention to where we're looking—and they get nervous when we look directly at them.
The Advantages of Befriending Crows
For example, if you keep chickens, they could warn you of other predator birds getting too close. Sometimes they also leave gifts to their feeders. Shiny objects attract crowds, so a crow may drop something shiny in your hands. They are smart and can be trained to do complex tasks!
Crows are highly intelligent birds, and they have been known to form close bonds with people who feed them. If a crow has become accustomed to being fed by a person, it may start following that person in the hopes of getting more food. This is a common behavior in crows, and is known as “begging behavior.”