Food of the Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos Brehm, in South-central Kansas

A study in south-central Kansas analyzes 617 regurgitated pellets collected from 1952–1954 to document seasonal and local variation in crow diet. Pellets were sampled from roosts of resident and wintering flocks, each examined separately, and percentages of indigestible residues were estimated alongside field observations. Results show a highly varied, seasonally shifting diet dominated by agricultural grains (wheat, oats, sorghum, corn), fruits and seeds (cherries, sunflower, grapes), and a wide range of insects (scarabaeid beetles, grasshoppers, ants, hemipterans), with feeding linked to sowing, harvest, and haying cycles. The paper also discusses methodological strengths and limits of pellet analysis for dietary inference.