Crows check out a nest on the beach in Ocean Ridge, while another (below, right) flies overhead. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
The crows know.
Along our beaches, the loud and large black birds show off their smarts by tracking sea turtle monitors, waiting for a chance to scavenge what’s left of a nest that’s been ransacked by a raccoon or fox.
The flying predators are also known to scoop up wayward turtle hatchlings scrambling to get to the ocean and have been seen trying to peek into the buckets rescuers use to carry new hatchlings to safety.
“If you walk away from your ATV and you have a bucket with a towel over it, they will try and pull the towel off,” says David Anderson, the sea turtle conservation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. “They associate the bucket with something in it.”
Seven crows gather at a turtle nest in Gulf Stream. They can associate the nest markers with the possible presence of hatchlings or eggs. Photo provided by Sea Turtle Adventures
Throughout southern Palm Beach County, fish crows — the more common type of crows in the area — are proving just how intelligent and adaptable they are.
Members of the corvid family of birds, which includes ravens and blue jays, crows are known for their cognitive ability. They are also known for their excellent memories, problem-solving skills and their ability to recognize human faces and behaviors.
“These skills make them incredibly adaptable,” according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists who responded to The Coastal Star questions in an email.
It also makes them formidable predators.
Fish crows feed on coastal species such as marine invertebrates, as well as eggs and young shorebirds, seabirds and sea turtles.
In South County, fish crows on the lookout for easy meals are common sights on the stakes marking sea turtle nests — and often on limbs of Australian pines and other nearby trees.
A crow on a stake with a sea turtle hatchling in its mouth. Photo provided by Sea Turtle Adventures
Joanne Ryan, the FWC permit holder for the volunteer Highland Beach Sea Turtle Team, remembers the early morning not long ago when a female green sea turtle nesting high on the dune drew a crowd of avian spectators on the top of an adjacent 14-story high-rise, perhaps hoping for a fresh egg breakfast.
“I was guarding the turtle with my life,” she said.
Jackie Kingston, executive director of Sea Turtle Adventures, which monitors beaches in Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes and part of Ocean Ridge, says crows are always on the lookout for a quick meal.
“We’ll have our head down in a nest and when we look up, they’ll be circling all around,” she said.
Kingston, Ryan and Anderson do their best to keep crows away from hatchlings, but they’re not always present to protect them.
The birds will patrol the line of seaweed on the beach looking for errant baby turtles and have been seen snatching them up and taking them to nearby trees.
The birds that catch hatchlings are quick.
“It happens in the blink of an eye,” Kingston said.
Anderson said he has also seen a crow grab a hatchling and bury it, almost as if it is hiding it for a later meal.
Kingston said she’s seen crows bury eggs as well, on the rare occasions when the sea invades a nest and the eggs start washing away.
“They’ll get one and then come back and get another,” she said.
Although crows are a threat to sea turtles, Anderson said they are much less of a problem than some of the other major predators such as raccoons, foxes, skunks and coyotes, which have been known to rummage through nests looking for eggs or hatchlings while damaging everything in the way.
A bigger avian threat, both he and Ryan say, are yellow crown night herons, which pluck hatchlings from the beach often before daylight.
“Crows are way down on the list,” Anderson said.
Though the birds can be pesky, both Anderson and Ryan have developed a respect and dialogue with the crows.
“I talk to them all the time,” says Ryan. “They’re very cool birds and they’re very smart.”
Crows, like other corvids, have been known to use tools to solve problems. They have been documented, for example, dropping stones into a glass tube of water in order to get the water level to rise to where they can reach it.
Crows are also cooperative breeders, according to FWC biologists, meaning offspring from past nests help their parents raise new young.
Individuals can work together to solve problems and identify unusual resources, such as food sources especially present in urban landscapes.
Because they are opportunists, crows can often be attracted to trash and food not in their natural diet, and that, say FWC biologists, can have a negative impact on shorebird and seabird colonies as well as turtles because predators will linger in the area.
People can help minimize the predation by crows and other animals by cleaning beaches of trash and by not feeding them and other wildlife, the FWC team says.
Over the years Anderson, Kingston and Ryan have found that people and crows on South County beaches can be friends.
“They’re our companions on the beach,” Anderson said. “We have a fun love-hate relationship.”
Crow facts
• There are two types of crows — fish crows and American crows. Fish crows are more common in coastal Palm Beach County.
• Crows are members of the corvid family whose members are known for cognitive ability. They are also very social.
• Crows can recognize human faces.
• Fish crow populations in Florida appear to have grown from 2012 to 2022.
• Fish crows have a distinct nasally call.
Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
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