American Crows are familiar over much of the continent: large, intelligent, all-black birds with hoarse, cawing voices. They are common sights in treetops, fields, and roadsides, and in habitats ranging from open woods and empty beaches to town centers. They usually feed on the ground and eat almost anything—typically earthworms, insects and other small animals, seeds, and fruit; also garbage, carrion, and chicks they rob from nests. Their flight style is unique, a patient, methodical flapping that is rarely broken up with glides.
The range of the American crow now extends from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean
in Canada, on the French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, south through the United States, and into
northern Mexico. The increase in trees throughout the Great Plains during the past century
due to fire suppression and tree planting facilitated range expansions of the American crow
as well as range expansions of many other species of birds.
Virtually all types of
country from wilderness, farmland, parks, open woodland to towns and major cities are
inhabited; it is absent only from tundra habitat, where it is replaced by the common raven.
This crow is a permanent resident in most of the US, but most Canadian birds migrate some
distances southward in winter. Outside of the nesting season these birds often gather in large
(thousands or even millions) communal roosts at night.