How can I keep the crows away from our local bunny population?

Question

We have crows who live near us who like to swoop down and kill small rabbits. It is horrible... My children are terrified.

Any ideas to keep the crows away?

Answer 1

Leave nature alone. Take the opportunity to teach your kids about nature. The crows are not killing rabbits to be mean, or for sport, they are getting food. The young rabbits are lucky to get their lessons from crows. Crows are inept predators that will often miss allowing the rabbits to learn about danger from above. If they get their lessons from raptors they won't get to use the education. Nature knows best. Every year it makes about six times as many rabbits as there is food available,and then uses the extra ones to feed hawks, owls, foxes, stray dogs, etc.The smart and strong rabbits will live to breed and the others won't.

Answer 2

get a fake owl!  yes, find the nearest place that makes animal replicas and put it wherever your bunnies are, crows greatest enemy is the owl, wanna go further? add a owl noise to it, they won't come back

Answer 3

Nothing horrible about it at all, it is called Nature.  You are fortunate to be able to watch Nature in action.  Instead of seeing as horrible.  Leave the crows alone, leave the rabbits alone.  If you don't like what you see, don't watch.

Answer 4

I have never heard of crows preying on rabbits.  You must be confusing crows with hawks.  Please do some research about this subject.  I think you're unnecessarily scaring your children.  Here's a link.

http://aviary.owls.com/crow/crow.html

Answer 5

u can build a sort of "shed" with net, around the area where the bunny population is flourishing.

see, we cannot keep the crows away from them, as it is in their Natural instincts..

The best thing in my view, is to create a "barrier" between the crows and the bunny population..

with net creating walls and roof over them, enclosing the Bunny population within..

(large enough to provide a "free in Nature" feeling in them)

hope that helps..

Answer 6

Are you sure these are crows and not some kind of bird of prey (hawk, eagle, etc.)  Crows are usually carrion eaters, but will take live baby birds from nests.  They are not known for hunting live animals.   Anyway..whatever they are,  this is nature...and you cannot stop it.  This is basically natures way of providing "wildlife management".  You can hang some wind chimes or CDs on a string and hang them around your house to keep them out of the general vicinity..birds do not like motion..but as far as stopping them from feeding in nature..not much to be done there.  Also, keep in mind that all native wild birds in the US are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and harming or harassing them in any way is illegal.  I think you need to sit down and explain what a food chain is to your children so they will understand this is a natural thing in the ecosystem and will not think of predators as evil and scary.  Let this be a learning experience even though it may not be pleasant.

Answer 7

I would leave the crows alone and watch nature in action. But if you really want to maybe build a scarecrow or a large pole that would distract the crows.

Answer 8

try building a scare crow

Answer 9

I hate crows!!!!!

I feel worse for the bunnies though...aww. When crows are in overdrive in my backyard and checking out my cat & other animals, I just stay outside and yell at them. hah. There's not much you can do unfortunately.

Answer 10

I am sorry that it is bothering you and your children, but when push comes to shove you are talking about wild animals doing what they do.  It is nature, you should not try to mess with it just because it upsets you.  Keeping the crows away is like trying to keep bears away from fish, lions away from zebra, snakes away from mice and birds just because it upsets you.  I am sure you understand that too.

The crows are no different than any other animal in nature, what I am sure is causing the difference in your mind is the face that it is taking place in your back yard and is bothering your children... something you probably are not used to.

When push comes to shove there are things you could do, but because the animals involved are wild there is nothing you should do.  If the crows were going after your pets it might be different but that is not the case.  Also, do not worry... unless the kids are doing something to bother the crows, they will not go after you children.   Crows are extremely smart and rank in the top 10 of animal smarts... they know what they are doing.

Anyway, my suggestion is to just leave things be.  Inform your children that it is just nature (give them examples of other animals who kill... leave out the gore) and that as long as they do not bother the crows, the crows will not bother them.  If you are close to a zoo maybe check and see if their education dept has crows (many use them in shows because of how smart they are).  You could take the kids and show them that the crows are ok.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: it is funny to see how people who are saying let nature be nature get thumbs down....  and people wonder why wildlife and nature in general has so many problems...  stupid humans do not know when to butt out