Unfortunately, I doubt they will make much of an impact. They might take an occasional snake, but they could not be termed as an "important" predator of rattlers.

wanda

But they do eat mice - less mice, less rattler food, I guess. :)

Brenda

"Large crows" are probably ravens, which are generally smarter and more adaptable to humans. The only birds I have ever seen that will pick up a snake are the hawks, but I don't know the answer though.

They also eat snails. We have a lot of crows in our neighborhood--and yet they are unpleasantly loud--but I've seen them eating snails on multiple occasions so I think they're good to have around.

Thanks for responding everyone. I was just looking for a bright spot....maybe eating the snakes food ( mice)will have to do. That and snails. I don't mind their loud caws so much, but seems there are less of the smaller song birds about since they came on so strong. Am guessing they are not kind to the smaller birds. Ah well. Thanks again, all.

According to my bird book -

"An opportunist in its feeding, the American Crow consumes a great variety of plant and animal food: seeds, garbage, insects, mice. Its nest-plundering is decried, but in orchards and fields it destroys many injurious insects. However, the labeling of birds as either 'harmful' or 'useful' is misleading and antiquated. Crows do destroy many eggs and nestlings of woodland and meadow birds, but they also weed out the weak and feeble, and they alert the animals in a neighborhood when danger approaches."

Maybe they'll even alert you when a rattler comes around. :)

Brenda

We have large black birds -- either ravens or crows -- who try, unsuccessfully, to build a nest in one particular corner of our roofline every Spring; DH always pulls it down. We also have a huge variety of much smaller birds. So, I don't see any problem with their co-existence.... at least in my gardens.

A few years back, I was camping in Texas, and a Chihuahuan Raven flew over our campsite. It had a large black snake in its beak, which it lost hold of and dropped inches away from my partner's head.

A large, LIVE, black snake.

Screams were uttered, as were aggravated caws.

And the snake slithered away as quickly as it could.

About 10 years ago, I was working on the ground floor of an office building in San Diego when a Western Tanager crashed into the window by my desk. I could see the bird lying on the ground below my window. A couple of crows came down and picked up the apparently lifeless carcass of the Western Tanager and played with it a bit, but then for some reason they dropped it and flew away. When I finally got off work, I went outside and walked toward the bird. I thought this would be a chance to get a really good, closeup view of a Western Tanager. I got within about 5 ft. of the bird when it suddenly hopped to its feet and flew off!

Maybe your crows were performing CPR!

I have crows nesting in my high redwoods every year. The cooing and clucking that goes on with the babies is rather entertaining. The small birds do attack them if they come to close to their nests.

Penny

I see the last posting was quite a long time ago. Crows DO indeed kill snakes. Just a few minutes ago I heard crows making a ruckus in my yard. I went out on my porch and saw three of them attacking a large snake in my yard. They call for other crows to help once they've found their prey.

My back garden is sort of a bird sanctuary - we have lots of tall trees and bushes, 4 bird baths, and I put out bird seed. Zillions of little song birds. Also crows. I feed them (the crows) peanuts, which they love. Each morning they gather and start calling, until I get up to feed them. After they got used to me, I occasionally get what I call "chuckled" at - the soft noise they make to their babies, very different from their normal caws. I saw a film on TV where scientists did experiments and determined that crows can recognize individual human faces.

My brother told me to make that clicking noise which you can make out the side of your mouth to them - now if I go out with peanuts and there are no crows, I do that, and they show up within about 45 seconds. They are very intelligent and I love having them around. If a hawk comes close to one of their nests in the tall trees around here, they put out a "calling all crows" noise for help, and crows show up from all points of the compass - within a few minutes there are dozens of them harassing the hawk until it leaves.

So, I would pay attention to your crows, and you will learn about them and be entertained!

Jackie

Ditto on everything you said, Jackie. I love my crows. They're out there right now,calling for me to come and feed them a snack...lol..we have a lot of coyotes. More around and quite active lately than I've seen in awhile and though they don't worry me, I always know when there's one on the property because the crows alert us.

We also have a lot of misc. other birds who seem undeterred by the crows. The crows currently have two nests in our largest ash tree that they re-use each year and recently they've been building another.

Hi there! I'm new here and loving this conversation!

I have a raven, maybe a couple, that frequents my back yard. It's a new thing this year or that I'm noticing it. I love crows/ravens because as mentioned above, they are very intelligent and observant and I appreciate that.

So ive been making sure the bird baths are filled and I started leaving out leftovers. I know this bird is watching me WAY more than I get to watch him. This morning after opening the blinds and scaring him away, I went out to water and put out some meat. A huge burger with all the fixings no mind you! I saw a little garter snake and tried to catch it to show my son.a quick catch and release. I lost the little guy.

Later on in the afternoon we were out in the yard again playing and I noticed something in the bird bath. It was the snake! Not really eaten too much, looked like just enough to kill it.

Maybe saving it for later? Or maybe a gift for me? I've heard of crows leaving gifts before. And yes, they can identify people and they remember if you are a friend or foe. My neighbor shoots at them and I hate it.

What are your thoughts!? I guess if it's eaten in the morning, it wasn't a gift. Ha ha

Please report back.

I had two HUGE crows, or maybe rava s, pounding away at my windows for several days in a row. Scared the bejeesus out of me! I was sure something was in my house! I've had much smaller birds, one at a time, fight their reflections, but couldn't make sense of two! I yelled at them everyday and eventually they stopped coming back.