Food of the Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos Brehm, in South-central KansasPlatt, Dwight R.
Science
Food of the Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos Brehm, in South-central Kansas
Platt, Dwight R.
Crows
The cherry harvest was over by June 29. Grain harvest was over and the
fields were being plowed by July 2. Alfalfa was being cut for hay in
early July and crows were then feeding on plowed fields and the newly
mown alfalfa fields. Much time in the middle of the day was spent along
the creeks where crayfish could be obtained. During most of the summer,
pellets were difficult to find because the roosts were small, shifting,
and scattered and because few pellets were produced. For weeks at a time
there were no usable pellets under roosts occupied by hundreds of birds,
although droppings and feathers were present. At other times large
collections of pellets could be gathered from small roosts. Plowing was
a major farm operation at the season when pellets were most scarce.
Larvae of insects (especially beetles), and earthworms might have
provided a major source of food which lacked sufficient indigestible
material to form pellets. A few feces were collected and analyzed in an
attempt to find the residue of such soft-bodied foods. Indigestible
materials were found in the feces, but these were of the same types as
those found in the pellets. Only a few fragments were found which might
have been the mouthparts of grubs.
After mid-July pellets were common under one small roost. In late July
they were scarce, even at a roost with several hundred crows. The
principal feeding grounds of crows were stubble fields and plowed
fields. All grain picked up at this time was waste. Plowing was
interrupted by rain from July 11-18 but was the major farm operation
again after July 19.
From late July into early September crows fed in plowed fields, stubble
fields, pastures, and newly mown hay fields. Pellets were scarce,
considering that hundreds of crows used the roost where pellets were
collected. Plowing was almost over by July 31. Brome grass was in full
head during the early part of this period. Corn was in the milk stage
during the early part of August but did not show up in any pellets.
Although Sudan grass was in head during the early part of this period,
other sorghum did not head out until September.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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