Do crows collect shiny objects?
No. Wild crows do not like, nor collect shinyobjects. They do not hide, store, or cache anything but food. I believe thatall stories of crows and magpies taking shiny objects come from people'sexperiences with captive, hand-raised young birds.
Youngcorvids are very investigative, and love to handle objects. They like to pickthem up, peck at them, and then hide them. Most corvid species hide food forlater retrieval (some, like the nutcrackers in the genus Nucifraga, areextreme, hiding and remembering thousands and thousands of seeds). Juvenilebirds "play" with inedible objects, picking them up, pecking them,and eventually hiding them. (Play is just doing appropriate actions withinappropriate objects, just like children playing house.) In the wild, theywould play with sticks, stones, acorn caps, and things like that. In captivity,they will do the same thing to just about anything small and portable, and theymay be attracted to shiny things, like keys, coins, or the like. Most corvidsare "scatter hoarders" and hide only one or a few things in any onelocation (rather than being "larder hoarders" that store everythingin one place, like a packrat). So ifyour pet crow hid your keys, don't expect to find them in the same place thatyou find your diamond ring.

We've got crows hanging out in our yard. Howcan we get rid of these pests?
Good luck! Once crows have decided to come toyour yard, it might be hard to convince them to leave. Plastic owl decoys willwork, ... for about 15 minutes. A dog could be more effective, especially if itwas encouraged to chase them. If, however, something really special wasattracting the crows to the yard (like readily available food), the crowsprobably would figure a way how to get it and avoid the dog. The idea is tomake the yard an unattractive place for the crows. Cut down your trees if youhave to. Chase them when possible and make it obvious that you are after THEM,not just going out in the yard for other reasons (it will make a difference,trust me, but see below for the associated risks of this technique). Killingthe crows is not a recommended option. It can be done legally only in a fewareas (out of the city, and with permits or a hunting license). But, if onefamily of crows found your yard desirable, chances are others will too. Crowsociety is filled with excess crows that are waiting for an opportunity tobreed (the helpers staying home and helping the parents raise young). If youkill some territory holders off, you just create a breeding opportunity for thecrows waiting in the wings.

Crowsmake a wide variety of calls or vocalizations. Whether the crows' system ofcommunication constitutes a language is a topic of debate and study. Crows havealso been observed to respond to calls of other species; this behavior is, itis presumed, learned because it varies regionally. Crows' vocalizations arecomplex and poorly understood. Some of the many vocalizations that crows makeare a "Koww", usually echoed back and forth between birds, a seriesof "Kowws" in discrete units, counting out numbers, a long cawfollowed by a series of short caws (usually made when a bird takes off from aperch), an echo-like "eh-aw" sound, and more. These vocalizationsvary by species, and within each species vary regionally. In many species, thepattern and number of the numerical vocalizations have been observed to changein response to events in the surroundings (i.e. arrival or departure of crows).Crows can hear sound frequencies lower than those that humans can hear, whichcomplicates the study of their vocalizations.

How longdo crows live?
Most crows don't even live a year, having diedin the egg or as nestlings. In my study population of American Crows in Ithaca,New York, just about half of the nests succeed in producing young. Of the youngI band in the nest a week before fledging, about half are alive and with theirparents the next year. Of course some have disappeared and not died, but that'sa pretty good survival rate for birds anyway. Once they survive that first yearthey have a good chance of making it for several years more. None of my birdstry to breed when they are one year old, and some are six years old and stillhelping their parents. Average age of first reproduction for females is 3.3years, and males average 4.9 years. Breeders have about 93% yearly survival. Mysurvival data (biased towards the short side by those that disappear) indicatethat some crows should live to be 17 - 21 years old.

In Irishmythology, crows are associated with Morrigan, the goddess of war and death.
In Norsemythology, Huginn and Muninn are a pair of ravens that fly all over the world,Midgard, and bring the god Odin information.
InAustralian Aboriginal mythology, Crow is a trickster, culture hero andancestral being. Legends relating to Crow have been observed in variousAboriginal language groups and cultures across Australia; these commonlyinclude stories relating to Crow's role in the theft of fire, the origin ofdeath and the killing of Eagle's son.
In the Epicof Gilgamesh, the Chaldean myth, the character Utnapishtim releases a dove anda raven to find land, however, the dove merely circles and returns. Only thendoes Utnapishtim send forth the raven, who does not return. Utnapishtimextrapolates from this that the raven has found land, which is why it hasn'treturned.
Accordingto Ovid's Metamorphoses, in classical Greek mythology, when the crow told the godApollo that his lover Coronis was cheating on him with a mortal, he became veryangry, and part of that anger was directed at the crow, whose feathers heturned from white to black.[31]
In the Story of Bhusunda, a chapter of the YogaVasistha, a very old sage in the form of a crow, Bhusunda, recalls a successionof epochs in the earth's history, as described in Hindu cosmology. He survivedseveral destructions, living on a wish-fulfilling tree on Mount Meru

BLACK CROW!!!AU-AU-AU-AU…
*a HUGE portion of positive energy flow you mustfeel from the monitor right now*

What is the difference between a crow and araven?
Crows andravens, although in the same genus (Corvus) are different birds. (Think ofleopards and tigers; both are in the genus Panthera, and are obviously related,but they are quite distinct animals.) The words "crow" and"raven" themselves have little or no real taxonomic meaning. That is,the Australian "ravens" are more closely related to the Australian"crows" than they are to the Common Raven (Corvus corax). In general,the biggest black species, usually with shaggy throat feathers, are calledravens and the smaller species are considered crows.
CommonRavens can be told from American Crows by a couple of things. The sizedifference, which is huge, is only useful with something else around to comparethem with. Ravens are as big as Red-tailed Hawks, and crows are, well, crowsized.
More subtlecharacters include: ravens soar more than crows. If you see a "crow"soaring for more than a few seconds, check it a second time.

Do the male and female crow mate for life?
More or less. In general, it appears that theydo. Unless a mate is killed or severely incapacitated, crows appear to staywith the same mate year after year. It is possible, however, for exceptions tooccur. Generally this would happen in the case of a young pair of birds thatmated but bred unsuccessfully. They might break the pair bond and try againwith someone else. I had one young male return home after an unsuccessful firstnesting attempt. Because the female was unmarked I do not know if she died oralso went home to her folks.

Since the crows came we don't have any littlebirds around anymore!
Crows are predators and scavengers, and will eatanything they can subdue. That said, the bulk of their diet (in this area,anyway) consists of waste grain in winter, and earthworms and other terrestrialinvertebrates in the spring and summer. Crows will eat eggs and nestlings ofsongbirds, and in some areas might have a significant impact of a localpopulation of birds. Far more likely, however, is that crows are but one of ahost of species preying on the "desirable" wildlife, and removingcrows will make no change in the end result (that of most of the youngbirds/eggs being eaten).

We have a pair of crows in our backyard thatuse our bird bath as a depository for all of the carcasses they find. There arevarious snakes and rodents in the bath right now. It is disgusting. Why do theydo that?
Crows and all members of the family Corvidaewill store excess food. Sometimes you can see crows bury things in the grass ofthe yard (usually covering it up with a leaf or plucked grass; sometimeslooking at it several times and using a number of different coverings beforebeing satisfied that it really is hidden). They also hide food in trees or raingutters, or whatever is a handy spot. At this time of the year (April) crowsare nesting, and the female breeder sits all day on the eggs or youngnestlings. She leaves the nest only infrequently and the male and the helpersbring her food. Food is easy to bring (all pecked into pieces and stashed inthe throat under the tongue), but water is harder. So, crows often will dunkdry foods in water and take the moistened food to the nest. It is likely thatthat is what is going on in the birdbath. In my experience with several captivecrows, some individual crows also seem more inclined to put food in water andleave it there than others. Perhaps they want it to rot a little to improve theflavor a bit before they eat it (just like we do when we "age" beef).

Crows arenot evil, and they are not purposely trying to torment you. They are just beingcrows, trying to live their lives and feed their families. Actual propertydestruction is one thing that might require action, but just being annoying issomething else again. Try to appreciate the crows for the fascinating creaturesthey are. If you get over that hurdle, the annoying habits become much lessannoying. I have said that crows are much like my family or my dog: they domany things that annoy me, but I love them and am willing to overlook (most) ofthe annoying things because the relationship is primarily positive on thewhole.
Crows do have one endearing characteristic thatis apparently not shared by other birds. They will get to know people asindividuals. While you can get chickadees to eat out of your hand, any old handwill do, and I suspect that the chickadees do not know you as an individual.Crows will! If you toss them peanuts (I recommend unsalted, in the shell) on aregular basis, they will wait and watch for you. Not just any person, but you.If you do this often enough, they will follow you down the street to get more.

I saw crows fighting and it looked like one wasgoing to kill the other. Why would they do that?
Crows are very social species and live in largeextended family groups. That does not mean, however, that they are friendlywith all other crows. Just as we humans are social and love our families andfriends, we also have been known to fight and kill each other on occasion.Birds may fight for a number of reasons, such as defending territoryboundaries, protecting their mate (or sexual access to them), or defending someother resource. Crow fights within a family are usually short and involve onlya few pecks. (Crows, in my experience, actually seem to have very fewintra-family squabbles compared to some bird species.) Fights between membersof different families, however, can be protracted and deadly. I frequently seecrows locked together tumbling out of trees in the spring. Although I havenever witnessed an actual killing, I would not be at all surprised to see crowskill another crow from outside the family group that was trespassing.

I LIKEblack crows. They are like ravens…I LIKE ravens. Ravens…their metallic blackcolour…AMAZING.
That’sactually all. Not so information full, but that’s it.

Who builds the nest, and what do they looklike?
In the beginning stages of the nest both membersof the pair, as well as some helpers many times, work equally hard on buildingthe nest. In fact, the male can be even more active getting started. Thebreeding female, though, usually does the most building at the end when theyare lining the nest. She is the one who gets everything comfortable in there,because she is the only one who sits in the nest to incubate and brood the young.

What do crows eat?
everything
Why do crows gather in flocks during the day?
to cruise the singles' flocks
How smart are crows?
smarter than many undergraduates, butprobably not as smart as ravens
Are crows getting bigger?
no
Are crow populations increasing?
probably, but not as much as you think
How can you tell a male crow from a female?
noteasily

The mostobvious characteristics of the American crow are that it is big, black, andmakes a lot of noise. The most obvious sound that crows make is the one writtenin English as caw. Caws may be long or short, loud or relatively soft, givensingly or in sequences, made by one bird alone or by two or more birds under avariety of circumstances.
Observers over the centuries have noted thatcrows use specific sounds under specific circumstances. Alarm calls, assembly calls,distress calls, and many others have been noted. One problem in interpretingthese calls, however, has been the fact that different groups of crows,belonging to the same species but in different geographical areas, may not useor understand all of the same calls.