A crow has been in my backyard all day! Its right outside my patio door and generally making a lot of noise and behaving agressively! Kind of embarassing when you work from home -
I have a plastic motion detector owl that is supposed to scare birds, but, the crow doesn’t seem too worried.
This crow has been here before, but there was a contingent of smaller birds that would chase it away -
Was this a battle for territory? Did the crow win? How can I make it go away?? Where did my cute little bird army go??
Short of harming the nasty thing, of course -
I was also going to suggest the flamboyant attack toward it, perhaps actually trying to hit it with a wiffle ball bat or some object that may or may not damage the crow but wouldn’t damage anything else you might accidentally hit. But I was going to suggest doing it as stealthily as possible and at random intervals, so it never knows when it’s going to happen.
NB: i’ve never tried to scare off a crow so good luck if you try it!
I have crows in my back yard, too. If I see one on the deck or in the flower bed I’ll run out at it yelling and flapping a dishtowel, and it’ll fly up in a tree swearing at me in bird talk. But the other birds - goldfinches, cardinals, hummingbirds, sparrows - they are still out there, too. Do you have a bird feeder out? Crows like sunflower seeds, especially, as much as any other bird.
But if you don’t want to harm it, how about spraying it with the garden hose? Not a high-power jet or anything, just a broad spray. You may have to do it more than once, but I imagine he’ll get the message eventually.
You just have to make sure they like you! One reason, among others, I like them is they chase squirrels. I think it’s hilarious when I see a crow chasing one down the street.
I can confirm that both of these methods are effective, with the difference being the finality of the former. Also, if you harm or kill a crow, the other crows will remember what you look like and circle you at very low altitude whenever you walk outside.
Use a garden hose with a narrow cone shaped spray pattern to hose the crow thoroughly.
Between Alfred Hitchcock & these crows, I am really not a fan of anything with wings right now!!
There are now three crows, so maybe they are swarming my plastic owl!!
I was watering the lawn last night, and half heartedly sprayed a little water at them. No effect, they continued to swoop at me. I’ll change the nozzle on the hose - something a little stronger -
I’ve tried yelling, waving my arms, throwing things - the crows are really not afraid of me. I’m afraid for my garden!! Which makes me wonder - just how does a scarecrow work??
A pellet gun was my SO’s answer, but I live in Suburbia -
Wait, really? That sounds implausible. I mean, that seems like it would require not only a good memory - which is believable enough - but some sort of capacity for empathy. “That bastard killed Joe!” is a perfectly normal thought for a human, but seems a bit much for a crow.
Crows are famous for their community-wide grudges. Chester A. Arthur even had a murder at his funeral, mocking his demise in response to his infamous signing of the Scarecrow Act 1884.
I can vouch that a .50 caliber Hawken makes a hell of a mess out of a pesky crow; but since you live in suburbia that isn’t practical.
I’d gowith the pellet gun solution. They aren’t noisy, a single shot isn’t going to even get noticed much less bring the law dogs down on you. Make the shot from inside the house through an (open) window or door if you have nebby neighbors. If your SO wants to really feel all James Bondy when he does it, get one of the new suppressed pellet guns.
That shouldn’t be a problem, Pellet guns use compressed air, the projectile goes very slow (comapred to, say, a bullet) and is easily stopped by a fence, wall, tree, a thick blanket, etc… Most won’t even shatter a window unless it’s very close, like within a few feet, IME.
Of course, they still cost money, and you might not be comfortable with killing a crow or three, but being in the suburbs shouldn’t be an issue.
Edit: You might not even need a full-fledged pellet gun, just a smaller, cheaper, airsoft gun might work (they shoot plastic pellets.) A friend of mine in college killed a squirrel that kept getting into his garbage with an airsoft gun (some reason only the one squirrel got in there, the rest kept to the neighbor’s birdfeeders.)
