Problem Solving

Is It Legal to Kill Crows?

In the US, only two ways: crows may be hunted in a state crow season, or killed without a federal permit when they damage crops or livestock feed, cause a health hazard or damage a building. A crow at your bird feeder is none of those. Canada leaves crows to the provinces, and Ontario wants a licence, a farm or real damage to your property.

Not because they visit your bird feeder. Crows are protected by federal law in the US, and killing one is a crime unless a federal rule allows it. Two rules do: one lets states run crow hunting seasons, and the other, 50 CFR 21.150, lets you kill crows with no federal permit when they damage crops or livestock feed, cause a health hazard or damage a structure. Seed you put out for birds is not a crop and not livestock feed, and a crowded feeder is not structural damage of any kind.

We read eight rules: three federal ones, three states, Canada's treaty and Ontario's act. Each was read in its own text or on the agency's page, and feeding crows has its own page, is it illegal to feed crows. The same federal order covers grackles, blackbirds and cowbirds, read in full on is it legal to kill grackles.

What "take", "depredation order" and "season" mean#

Take is the word the law uses for harming a wild animal, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act lists the acts: "pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill," and more. Shooting, trapping and netting all count.

Depredation means damage done by wildlife. A depredation order is a standing federal rule that names some bird species and says when anyone may kill them without first applying for a permit. The crow order is 50 CFR 21.150, and its title lists "blackbirds, cowbirds, crows, grackles, and magpies."

A hunting season is a set of dates a state picks for sport hunting. For crows, the state picks the dates, but a federal rule, 50 CFR 20.133, sets the limits. In season you hunt by the state's rules, and you need no damage at all.

So there are two doors: damage, under the order, and a season, under state hunting law. If neither door is open, the default applies and killing a crow is unlawful.

A crow at your feeder is not damage#

The order allows control without a federal permit in five cases, listed in paragraph (b). The first two are the ones a homeowner might reach for:

1. "Where they are causing serious injuries to agricultural or horticultural crops or to livestock feed."
2. "When they cause a health hazard or structural property damage."

The other three protect species the federal government, a state or a tribe lists as endangered, threatened, candidate or of special concern. The chickadees and finches at your feeder are not on those lists.

Take each clause in turn. Birdseed is not a crop, and it is not livestock feed either. A crow scattering it across the lawn has not damaged a structure either. Noise, mess and a crowd of big black birds are annoyances, and the order has no annoyance, nuisance or noise clause. It once did, but that wording was cut in 2014, as traced on the grackle page.

Crows that eat eggs and nestlings in your yard do not qualify either, unless the bird they prey on is a listed species, which a robin is not.

The rules we read#

Read the "Crows at a feeder" column first.

No row lets you kill a crow because it eats from your feeder. In a season the reason is not asked, but the season has its own limits.

Why the answers online disagree#

Search the question and two answers come back: "crows are protected, so it is illegal," and "crows are pests, so shoot them any time they are a nuisance." Each is half right.

The first is right that crows are protected, since the Act bans killing them "unless and except as permitted by regulations." It is wrong to stop there, because crows have both a federal hunting season rule and a no-permit damage rule.

The second is right that a permit is often not needed, but wrong about when. "Nuisance" is not in the federal order. The word survives in older text, and two of the states we read still print it. Texas law says no state permit is needed when crows constitute "a health hazard or other nuisance," while Minnesota's DNR says crows can be killed in a roost that is "a nuisance (e.g. noise)." Neither one can widen the federal order. Its paragraph (j) says you may kill birds under it "only in a way that complies with all State" laws, which adds state limits and does not take federal ones away.

One yard walked through the rules#

Take a suburban yard in Pennsylvania, and say a flock of crows lands on the platform feeder every morning and clears it in minutes. The owner wants to shoot them, so here is how the rules read, one question at a time.

1. Is it damage under the order? No. The seed is not a crop or livestock feed, and nothing on the house is damaged, so the no-permit door is shut.
2. Is it a health hazard? The order does not define the term, but a feeder mess is the kind of annoyance the 2014 rule took out. On the text, this does not reach it.
3. Is the season open? Suppose it is a Tuesday in November, when Pennsylvania's 2026-27 crow season runs August 20 to March 21, "on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday only." Tuesday is closed, so the season door is shut too.
4. What about Saturday? Now the season is open, and the reason for shooting stops mattering. The federal limits still apply, so it is "firearms, bow and arrow, and falconry" only. State hunting rules and the town's gun rules decide the rest, and this page did not read Pennsylvania's.

Now change one fact, and suppose the crows are tearing open bags of cattle feed in a barn. That is "livestock feed," clause (b)(1). The order now applies on any day of the week, with its conditions: nonlethal methods first that calendar year, nontoxic shot, any state permit, and a report by January 31.

The federal depredation order#

The order names three crows: American, fish and northwestern. The American crow is the one most feeders see, while the fish crow lives along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and up big rivers. It is told apart by voice, so the order covering both saves you the guess.

When the order applies, it comes with conditions that most pages quoting it leave out.

• Nonlethal first. "Each calendar year, you must attempt to control depredation ... using nonlethal methods before you may use lethal control." The order names "netting and flagging, the use of trained raptors, propane cannons, and recordings."
• Nontoxic shot. "You must use nontoxic shot or nontoxic bullets." The one exception is "an air rifle or an air pistol."
• Traps. Check each one "at least once every day," give shade above 80°F (27°C), add food and water, and release other birds promptly.
• Killing a caught bird. Only "by carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide inhalation, or by cervical dislocation performed by well-trained personnel."
• The body. You may not sell any bird or part, so give it to a research or teaching body, or burn or bury it.
• Officers. You must let wildlife officers onto the land "at all reasonable times."
• The report. File FWS Form 3-2436 with your regional migratory bird permit office, "due by January 31st of the following year."
• State law. "You must have any State, tribal, or territorial permit required."

Breaking the federal rules is a misdemeanor, with a fine of "not more than $15,000," prison up to six months, or both (16 USC 707(a)).

Hunting seasons: the 124-day cap#

50 CFR 20.133 lets states and tribes set crow seasons, with four limits:

• "Crows must not be hunted from aircraft."
• Seasons "must not exceed a total of 124 days during a calendar year."
• No hunting "during the peak crow nesting period within a State."
• "Crows may be taken only by firearms, bow and arrow, and falconry."

Hawaii is the exception, where "take of crows is prohibited."

The last limit matters more than it looks. A trap, a net or poison is not on the list, so a season never allows trapping crows. Trapping is a depredation order matter, under its conditions.

States shape their seasons to fit the cap, and if you count the open days, both seasons we read land on 124 exactly.

• Pennsylvania opens on Thursday, August 20, 2026 and closes on Sunday, March 21, 2027. That span is 214 days, but count only the Thursdays to Sundays and you get 124.
• Minnesota splits its 2026-27 season into four parts: September 1 to October 31 (61 days), December 15 to 31 (17), January 1 to 15 (15) and March 1 to 31 (31). That adds to 124.

The federal cap counts by calendar year, not by season, and our count is per season, so treat it as how the dates are built, not as a calendar audit.

Pennsylvania: four days a week#

The Game Commission approved its 2026-27 seasons on April 11, 2026, and the crow line reads: "Aug. 20-March 21, 2027, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. No limit."

"No limit" means there is no bag limit. The release adds Sunday hunting to most 2026-27 seasons but not to migratory game birds, "including waterfowl, woodcock and mourning doves." The crow line settles it for crows by naming Sunday itself.

So a Pennsylvania homeowner has the season door four days a week for seven months. On the other three days, and all of spring and summer, only the damage door is open. More on feeding birds in the state: the Northeast.

Texas: the statute and the FAQ#

Texas law and the Texas wildlife agency say two different things about crows eating crops.

The statute is Parks and Wildlife Code 64.002(c): "A permit is not required to control ... crows ... when found committing or about to commit depredations on ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, livestock, or wildlife, or when concentrated in numbers and in a manner that constitutes a health hazard or other nuisance."

The agency's nongame FAQ says something else: "If you have a crop and flocking species like crows or blackbirds are devouring it all, contact your local game warden for a special permit to remove birds that are depredating your crop." It also says, "Seek other means to control the situation first."

The statute is the law, and on its face it waives a state permit, but the FAQ is how the agency that enforces it reads the situation, so the safe route is the one it asks for: call the warden. Either way, the federal order sits on top. The Texas list of trees, wildlife and "other nuisance" is wider than 21.150, and federal law does not allow those. Feeding birds in the state: Texas.

Minnesota: no license, and an old date#

Minnesota Statute 97B.731, subdivision 3, tells the DNR to set "a 124-day open season" for crows. It adds that "the remainder of the year crows may be taken as allowed by federal law." That last line hands the rest of the year to the federal depredation order.

The DNR's 2026-27 dates are September 1 to October 31, December 15 to 31, January 1 to 15 and March 1 to 31. Its crow page says "No limit," and the DNR's control page says "No license is required to hunt crows." Legal tools are "shotgun not larger than 10 gauge, rifle, or handgun," bow and arrow, or falconry.

You may still read that the season closes September 20. That comes from a Brainerd Dispatch story of September 9, 2013, which reported the 2013 split: "Aug. 1 through Sept. 20; Dec. 15 through Jan. 15 and March 1-31." The DNR's current fall dates run September 1 to October 31 instead.

The DNR's control page also uses the older federal wording. It says crows may be taken out of season when damaging "ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, livestock or wildlife," or in a roost that is "a nuisance (e.g. noise)." The statute says the rest of the year follows federal law, and the federal order has no such clauses now. Outside the season, read the federal order rather than that page. Regional feeding: the Midwest.

Ravens are not crows here#

The order names three crows and no ravens, and 20.133 is titled "Hunting regulations for crows." Neither rule mentions the common raven at all. A raven is still a protected bird, so neither door is open for it. Under 50 CFR 21.100, killing one for damage needs a federal depredation permit.

Getting the bird right matters here, because the law turns on the species. A common raven is much larger, about 24 inches (61 cm), with a wedge-shaped tail and a deep croak rather than a caw. A grackle or a starling is smaller; compare them on black birds identified.

Canada and Ontario#

Canada. The Migratory Birds Convention lists the birds it protects by group. The songbird line covers "all other perching birds which feed entirely or chiefly on insects." Crows eat almost anything, and no group names them, so crows fall to each province.

Ontario. The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act bans hunting any wild bird that is not a game bird (s. 5(1)). Section 5(2)(a) exempts six by name, starting with "an American crow." Exempt does not mean free, because section 6(1)(g) still says no one may hunt those six birds "except under the authority of a licence."

Two routes in the act skip the licence. A farmer, or family living with the farmer, may hunt them on the farm "during the open season" (s. 6(3)(e)), and anyone who believes "on reasonable grounds that wildlife is damaging or is about to damage" their property may "capture or kill" it on their own land (s. 31). They may not kill more "than is necessary to protect the property," and may not cause "unnecessary suffering." Seed you put out yourself is hard to call damage to your own property. Feeder by-laws in Canadian towns are on are bird feeders illegal in Canada.

What works without killing anything#

Scaring crows needs no permit, since 50 CFR 21.100 says "No permit is required merely to scare or herd depredating migratory birds," endangered species and eagles aside. The same tactics for grackles are on the grackle page.

Then take away the food that draws them to the yard. Crows cannot use a tube feeder with short perches or a caged feeder with a grid of about 1.5 inches (4 cm). They need open trays and spilled seed, and the full setup is on our American crow profile. Spilled seed also brings rodents, and some towns fine that; see bird feeder rat ordinances.

Nests are separate: a crow's nest is protected under the same Act; see is it illegal to remove a bird nest. So is a feather you pick up, covered in is it illegal to keep bird feathers.

Where this page stops applying#

This page reads three states and one province, not fifty states and thirteen provinces and territories. Every state sets its own season inside the federal cap, so check your wildlife agency's current dates before you act. We did not read Pennsylvania's license rules, or any state's rules on where you may hunt or fire a gun near houses. Those, plus town discharge bans and cruelty laws, apply on top of every row. We did not read Ontario's crow season dates, so we give none. The federal order does not define "health hazard" or "structural property damage," so whether a roost on your roof qualifies is for the US Fish and Wildlife Service or a court. Nothing here covers how to kill a bird humanely, and a crow found dead may be a disease case; see West Nile virus and crows. This is a reading of statutes, regulations and agency pages, not legal advice.