# why is important to pay attention to crows while hunting coyotes?



## hagman

Im new to hunting coyotes have been reading up on it quite a bit and have killed a few. But ive read a few articles that say where theres crows theres coyotes just wondering the importance and how the two correspond with each other?


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## coyotejon

i think what they are referring to is the fact that crows are typically hanging around carcasses and other food sources that coyotes also enjoy. coyotes will run in and check out the reason the crows are makin noise to see if they can score a free meal


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## TBROutdoors

We try to pay attention to all wildlife, not just crows. Most of the time, they will know the predator is on their way before you do.
We have been tipped off to incoming predators by crows, blue jays, squirrels, deer, cows and even rabbits.








I can recall one instance where a blue jay was going crazy and we could see him in the tree line but no predator???? After looking through the scope, the culprit was a bobcat in "sneak" mode. Thanks to the blue jay, the bobcat didn't make it!

Pay close attention to your surroundings because sometimes they can be your best set of eyes.

Best of luck and Happy Hunting!

Feel the Rush,

Richie
TBR Outdoors


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## Flatlander

Was out crow hunting last year and had a coyote come in to a crow distress call. Always have my 223 when crow hunting for that tattletale crow
that sits out of shotgun range. Also was just about ready to give up on a stand when some geese in the corn started going nuts. Stayed a couple
minutes and sure enough a yote pops out of the weeds, so like Richie said, watch and listen for more than just the predators your after.


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## [email protected]

This is a simple matter of "animals being smarter than humans". All good hunters, regardless of the game they are after watch the other animals.
Many times a bird, will alert you to a predator. Whether they are looking for a meal, or they are just keying in on the sounds does not matter. If I have a hawk, crows, or ravens right over head, I figure a yote is on the way. 50% of the time there is a yote.
I will always play the odds.


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## hagman

thanks guys never have really payed much attention to crows except for turkey huntin


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## Teamroper

Crows are a good telltale sign when they are out there coming in, but for me, when I see my cattle and horses take note of something I know that one is very close.


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## autumnrider

i've had an owl fly in and land out in front of me about 15 yards. while checking out the distress call, the owl turned his head one way and then again in the other direction. Two yotes was standing out there checking me out. wind shift and blowed it. yes - watch every animal


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## youngdon

I agree that you have to watch all the animals as I've seen rabbits running across a clearing to get away from something and sure enough here comes wiley. I have also seen crows dive bombing coyotes as they come across the desert floor to the call.


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## Tanka

More than on time a crow has alerted me to a gobbler when I was turkey hunting. Crows like to harass turkeys for some reason. Heck crows like to harass everything except humans I think. But if they will harass a turkey I'm sure they're the same way with a coyote.


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## GritGuy

I have learned thru the ages of my calling dogs, to watch for anything out of the ordinary when calling, most times anything thats all of a sudden taking flight or moving that was not while your calling is a tip off to a target moving in to your sounds.

Be that birds, rabbits or lots of bugs on bushes!! Hawks and other raptors naturaly are attracted but crows and ravins are scavengers and are always in the look for extras, I watch for them but usually don't pay as much concern to them as I do the ground action.


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## fulch

youngdon said:


> I agree that you have to watch all the animals as I've seen rabbits running across a clearing to get away from something and sure enough here comes wiley. I have also seen crows dive bombing coyotes as they come across the desert floor to the call.


Youngdon - do you ever implement crow calls into your sets here in the valley and if so is it just a "caw&#8230;&#8230;.caw&#8230;&#8230;.caw" and at what point or how often would you use it? I have a crow call and was using it trying to remember if I've seen crows in AZ (from WA state, lots of crows). I see a boat load of Ravens...


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## olsonfia

Blue jays will heckle anything. Even me when I'm slipping through the woods. They taddle on deer comin through long before I can spot em. Even cardinals. If you see them movin through from tree to tree. Usually something is close behind


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## sneakygroundbuzzard

like others, i pay attention to ALL other critters when i am hunting


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## singlesix

The crow often times will be following a coyote that is on his way to you when you are calling. Anytime I am calling and see a crow in the air I get super ready for something to come in. More times than not , that's what happens.

The crow knows the coyote is going to kill or eat what is crying, crow then knows he has a meal when coyotes are done eating. The crow cannot kill what is crying, so he knows to keep eye on coyote.


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## JTKillough

Why watch crows? A few years back, a hunting buddy and I were calling the sonoran desert of Arizona. We had some luck on the first set and moved on to the next. We hid the Jeep behind a sand dune and walked out on the opposite side of the same dune, sat up and started calling. We had called about 15 minutes when two crows came flying in. They went past us and then lit on a fence wire about 50 yards out. Shortly thereafter, they took to flight and started swooping up and down about 75 yards out and to our right. They would fly past, turn come back and swoop down. I figured something was out there, but could pick it out. The crows kept it up, making a lot of racket and swooping. I alerted my partner, "Theres something out there, those crows are seeing it but we can't." The scene carried on for another 15 or 20 minutes. Finally I spotted the bobcat as it exited the bush and turned to leave in a tiny opening at about 75 yards. My partner also see the cat and got on him. Those crows helped us take home a very nice tom.


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## glenway

Not just crows, either. Years ago, after curiously watching a red-tailed hawk dive bombing something in tall grass while woodchuck hunting, I got my first coyote. Never would have seen it without the aid of the bird.


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## youngdon

I've seen rabbits scattering more than once before I saw the coyote. Many times the coyote will come up a dry creek bed and the rabbits will skitter out of the bushes ahead of him.


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## JTKillough

Why watch crows? Lesson #2...Season before last, my brother, a friend and I, were hunting along the New Mexico state line. We had hunted hard all morning and hadn't been able to call in a damn thing. After admitting defeat, loading up, and heading home, we were crossing a chaparral covered mesa in the Jeep. I spotted a crow, swooping, about 200 yards off the two track road we traveled. I stopped the Jeep and got out, checking the brush for the offending coyote. My brother, somewhat new to the predator calling game, asked, "What are you doing?" I said flat out, "There's a coyote out there in the brush, but I can't see him." He said, "Yeah, right. There isn't a coyote out there. What makes you say that?" I said, "That crow." He looked at me like I had lost it. I finally gave up, couldn't see the dog, so loaded us all back into the Jeep and moved on down the road about 50 yards when the coyote broke cover and ran out of the brush. My friend jumped out and popped off a shot, missed and watched the coyote run off into history. Me and my brother stayed in the Jeep. I looked at him in the rearview mirror and winked. He just couldn't believe it.


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## JTKillough

Why watch crows? Lesson # 3 Other Critters Can Save Your Hunt: Several years ago, I was hunting all manner of predators in the desert south of my home, here in Arizona. I had taken a nice male coyote on my first stand and was enroute to a spot that I had hit on before. This spot was on a smallish hill, overlooking a windmill fed drinker (that desert talk for cattle trough). Much to my surprise, as I rounded the last turn, there was a pick-up parked exactly where I had planned to hide my own truck. I moved on, figuring someone was already working the area. I turned off the gravel road and onto a lesser used, trail really, that ran toward a far out dirt tank (see lesson one for description). I stopped well shy of the dirt tank and sneaked in like a good little predator caller. I slipped over the berm and nestled into a bush, pulled a Tally-Ho from the pocket and began. I sang a good while on the call, but hadn't seen anything. I was close to giving up and moving on when I heard a cow "moo" off the my left. I thought, "maybe that cow see's something I can't, maybe see is giving an alert to the herd that a predator is near." I began to concentrate my efforts and eyed on toward my left, and not two minutes later, I spotted the hard charger coming in at a run. He ran up to about 20 yards when I took care of business, and that was that. Question was, would I have seen him if I had been looking elsewhere? If I hadn't been watching that direction? I suppose I would have, but the fact was, that cow had given up the coyotes locale, and because of that, I knew something was up.


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## rjmjr911

Do Hawks help? I've gone out 2 times and both times I was able to call in a huge Hawk.

New to sport.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk


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## glenway

It's not unusual. Entertaining mostly, however.


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## JTKillough

Why watch crows? Lesson #4 / You can learn a lot from animals: I've been doing this for years now, so forgive me if I can't remember every scenario. I was setting above, what used to be a honey hole back in 2001. I had called for over fifteen minutes and was contemplating my exit, when I heard howling erupt from farther down the drainage. I stayed put, and continued with more enticements from a mouth call. Another ten minutes of on and off distress and nothing had come in. I caught movement to my right and farther out. A hawk took wing from a dead snag about three hundred yards up the draw. "Hummm, I wonder if that hawk has seen something moving through his area?" I thought to myself. I didn't see anything, so I watched that area quite closely for a few minutes, then went back to scanning the entire area both up and down the draw. After more squalling, scanning and setting, I seen a silhouette in the thick brush to my right. Coming from the hawks area. It wasn't there before. Definitely, something had moved up close, but was hung up on the other side of some thick cover. I slowly swiveled and put the scope to my eye to get a good look. Fox? Cat? I my surprise it was a bobcat. But I would have to thread a bullet through a small opening in the brush. Boom!

Scenario #2: I had called a double off this knob before, but today I hadn't seen anything other than those Javelinas that wandered in from below. The little stinkers were milling about, out around the four hundred yard mark, obviously looking for food and roots. A steady wind blew in from the east, so I knew I was setting down wind, but an approaching coyote may run up on the skunk hogs and shy away, or give chase, either way, he may not come on into my set. "Best to flush these hogs outta here. That way there is no distraction for a coyote," I thought. I got back on my Cass Creek caller and turned it up, hoping to scatter the herd. They continued to root up edibles, not paying any attention what-so-ever to my screaming. "Tenacious little devils must have found some good eats, they haven't even lifted their heads to check me out!" I figured to crank the Cass to full deaf mode and scramble the bacon. I hit the launch button on the caller and to my surprise, those hogs just continued to dig and chew. I shook my head, "What the hell, dirty little buggers aren't going to scram!" Then the realization sank in. Those pigs couldn't hear my calling. Just four hundred yards out and the wind was enough to stop all my sound. What were my chances of calling in a coyote from half a mile or better? I called it a day.......


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## LeadHead

Maybe I will try incorporating a crow call into my calling sequence. Some of you may recall a post of mine last year when one evening we had a coyote 500 yards behind the house, so I jumped in the truck and drove 1/2 mile down the road and hiked up the fence line in an attempt to cut him off--forgetting my calls at home. The yote had disappeared elsewhere (the herd of deer tipped me off to that) so I started calling with my mouth/throat. Soon a flock of crows were circling me and a few minutes later a different dawg than the one we had seen appeared over the edge of the field. I coaxed her in a little more and took her at 155 yards. Can't help but think the crows helped me out on that one, so this could be a fun experiment.


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## LeadHead

Ditto on livestock, too. Last year we had a neighbor's 2 horses sniffing our e-caller and when they both looked up to our left, I knew what they must be seeing. Sure enough, I dropped a female at just 80 yards.


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## mijohnstondavid0067

*😁😁😁is there a relationship between crows to coyotes , well i listen to them every night outside my door in fact always . my problem is where the den is of coyotes theres well about 20 crows at the same area . now they dont howl as much in the why not but any helpful questions can be a heelp towards me in getting a coyote ok thank you for some help . your welcome sir or mam *


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## mijohnstondavid0067

when i hunt coyotes i do sometimes here crows in the back ground then i pay great attention to where the crows are but like everthing else as in squirrels to deer they mostly know things better than us hunters just keep it in mind cause it works out in the end game of shooting a good or bad coyote. you pay attention to all animals in the woods even somebody walking there dogs in the woods it sends me signals when im there watching slowly .


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## mijohnstondavid0067

since 2015 to as of now - over 350 times i heard the coyotes howling but im starting to notice in the crows more less in the why everytime they howl in the middle of the night next day the crows are moreless on to them coyotes in the food they got over night -


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## mijohnstondavid0067

😁after you mentioned it yes as i started to hunt ive heard these crows before over my years into the hunting world in pa state . yes i believe it now more than not but yes i have as i think about it now o yeah i did .
but today i keep it in mind when im out with safety as it should be addressed to all that go hunting - you look at target know what you are looking at mostly then take aim . but ive been watching and hearing 6 packs around my house in pa . i like listening to the coyotes then comes daylight hours i do here crows on the wing. but thank you i learned alot tonight on crows thank you sir for this stuff i like it much your welcome sir ...


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