Carrion Crows are medium-sized members of the Crow family. Other members of the Crow family are the Jackdaw, the Jay, the Magpie, the Raven and the Rook. Carrion Crows are sometimes called thieves because they steal eggs and chicks from other birds.

Even though Carrion Crows steal eggs and chicks from nests in trees, they prefer to forage for food on the ground. When they look for food, they walk with long strides and then hop every now and again. They seem to walk and hop very purposely.

The Male Carrion Crow often stops to probe the grass with its beak when it looks for insects to eat. The female Carrion Crow prefers to turn over clods of grass with her feet! They both flip over stones and cowpats with their beaks and strip bark from wood to find ants and other insects.

Although Carrion Crows eat ants, they also do something very unusual with them. Carrion Crows sit on ant hills and then spread out their wings and allow the ants to crawl over all their bodies. This is known as ‘anting’ and Carrion Crows really seem to enjoy doing this. It is believed that ‘anting’ keeps parasites at bay because some ants release a certain kind of acid which parasites don’t seem to like. The acid of the ants also acts as a kind of body lotion for Carrion Crows. If a Carrion Crow has an itchy skin, the acid body lotion helps to relieve the itching.