Winter Habits of Crows in Oklahoma

Abstract

The crow is one of nature's most adaptable animals, else it would never have survived the persecution of the past 30 years. Instead of being reduced by diverse control activities, it has steadily increased. This has resulted from the extension of suitable wintering and summering grounds through agricultural development. Since the beginning of the present century, much of the nesting territory in Canada has been changed from bush into wheat farms, thus increasing and improving the summer range for the bird. Kalmbach (1937) and Kalmbach and Aldous (1940) showed that the northern limits of the crow's nesting territory closely approximate those of agriculture. In its winter range, the extension of farming in western Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas has provided an abundant winter food supply interspersed with ideal roosting sites. Kalmbach (1918) listed only a few large crow roosts in northeastern Oklahoma. Today, roosts are distributed over much of the state; there are eight large ones within a 25-mile radius in the central section. Because of this increase, depredations by crows on agricultural crops have increased in parts of the Southern Plains Area and farmers are forced to combat the birds and to alter certain old farming practices to save their crops. From October 1935 through March 1936, the author studied the situation and inves-