American crow has been listed as one of the Natural sciences good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones Date Process Result November 4, 2006 WikiProject peer review Reviewed October 18, 2007 Good article nominee Listed November 5, 2021 Good article reassessment Delisted December 2, 2025 Good article nominee Listed A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on December 10, 2025. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that the American crow is considered to be a sign of good luck in Native American cultures? Current status: Good article

This  level-5 vital article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Birds Mid‑importance American crow is part of WikiProject Birds, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative and easy-to-use ornithological resource. If you would like to participate, visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. Please do not substitute this template.BirdsWikipedia:WikiProject BirdsTemplate:WikiProject Birdsbird Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. This article has had a peer review which is now archived. WikiProject Birds To-do: Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Endemic birds of Papua New Guinea (more) Cleanup : Bullfinch • Vesper sparrow • Bird flight • Bird bath (more) Copyedit : Plushcap • Magpie duck • Saker falcon (more) Expand : Phalarope • Nidicolous • Gouldian finch • Cathartes • Cnemophilidae • Avian malaria (more) NPOV : Debeaking • Driven grouse shooting • Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital (more) Stubs : Cathartiformes • Semiplumbeous hawk • Rainbow-bearded Thornbill • Sunda scops owl (more) Update : Coal tit • Scottish crossbill • New Caledonian lorikeet • Operation Migration (more) Verify : Argus (bird) • Blyth's frogmouth • Nik Borrow • Pytilia • Fregata • Chestnut-headed tesia • Darter • Pallid scops owl • Starling (more) Wikify : Ninox boobook ocellata • The Institute for Bird Populations (more) Other : Add photos to bird articles needing photos (search Flickr for free images). Add taxonomic authorities to genus articles. More outstanding tasks at the project's cleanup listing, Category:Birds articles needing attention, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds/Todo.

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 2 February 2021 and 13 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ms0615. Peer reviewers: R0a01gz, Rubiii1231.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 14:03, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

What is the typical life span of this species? Funkyj 18:42, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The commentary short on the making of the opening sequence for Six Feet Under (found on disc 1 of the first season DVD collection) says that, for legal reasons, filmmakers must use pied crows with dyed plumage. Can anyone confirm this?

I have passed this article's GA because I believe it feels the GA criteria, being well written, factually accurate, broad in coverage, neutral, and stable. To take this article further, I think a few more inline cites are needed, and a few sections could be fleshed out more. I personally would like to see a more developed section on Nesting and maybe fleshing out Crows in Popular Culture - it's a little too like a Trivia section at the moment. Good work overall, and a great corvid article. Cheers, Corvus coronoides _talk 14:11, 9 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi again. This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force in an effort to ensure all listed Good articles continue to meet the Good article criteria. In reviewing the article, I have found there are some issues that may need to be addressed. There is one {{fact}} tag that needs to be taken care of. I will check back in no less than seven days. If progress is being made and issues are addressed, the article will remain listed as a Good article. Otherwise, it may be delisted (such a decision may be challenged through WP:GAR). If improved after it has been delisted, it may be nominated at WP:GAN. Feel free to drop a message on my talk page if you have any questions, and many thanks for all the hard work that has gone into this article thus far. Regards, Corvus coronoides _talk 23:27, 11 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force. I believe the article currently meets the criteria and should remain listed as a Good article. The article history has been updated to reflect this review. Regards, Corvus coronoides _talk 14:39, 18 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The text says: If seen flying at a distance from where size estimates are unreliable, the distinctly larger Common Ravens (C. corax) can be distinguished by their almost lozenge-shaped tail...

But, the Raven entry says: Apart from its greater size, the Common Raven differs from its cousins, the crows, by having a larger and heavier beak, a shaggy throat, and a wedge-shaped tail.

What I remember from a vertebrate biology class from about a hundred years ago, the second entry is correct. The raven has a wedge -- or somewhat diamond -- shaped tail in flight; the crow has the lozenge tail. I'm not sure, however.

Should this be changed?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eoraptor013 (talk • contribs) 20:50, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I edited the Taxonomy headline so it was no longer obscured by the sound sample.--Evilbred (talk) 13:44, 5 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've read about how the American crow has the ability to see ultraviolet light, and how their feathers show brilliant patterns when viewed with an ultraviolet camera. It would be neat if some information on this was added/found. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chemtype (talk • contribs) 01:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As with lots of birds that mate long term, males and females look a lot alike (not like robins, for example). Are there tell-tale differences? Among raptors, one sex is usually bigger than the other (males in half the species and females in the other half). What about American crows? Are males and females the same size? Leadwind (talk) 23:35, 29 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"It is also distinguished from the Raven by its smaller, more curved bill than the parallel bill of the raven, and its squared tail." This may be mistaken. The top of a raven's bill is curved; the top of a crow's bill is straight. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=2501 http://mag.audubon.org/articles/birds/how-tell-ravens-crow Kortoso (talk) 01:18, 10 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Fan-tailed Raven which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 10:15, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Fan-tailed raven which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 23:30, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A lead should summarize the article and create interest in the topic, see WP:LEAD. The lead talks about carrion crows, hooded crows, ravens, fish crows, and West Nile virus. It should do more to describe the American crow. The lead should be able to stand alone as a concise summary of the topic Jonathan Tweet (talk) 03:27, 25 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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== "CaaW-CaaW-CaaW!" == (I SEE SOMTHING)

The opening paragraph of this article contains the line: "The most usual call is CaaW!-CaaW!-CaaW!."

In the section Description, there is a similar line: "The most usual call is a loud, short, and rapid caaw-caaw-caaw."

I don't know if writing onomatopoeia for bird cries is standard on Wikipedia, but this seems a bit out of place to me. Other birds with distinctive calls, such as the Kookaburra, seem to just have audio files that one can listen to. Should the crow have its call written like this? Wondering Wanderer (talk) 07:19, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Wondering Wanderer: Hi. I agree that it seems strange and unencyclopedic to me too. There is no citation given for the caaw-caaw-caaw, but it seems to have been copied from this website without attribution. The description in the opening paragraph seems to come from this website, again without attribution. I have no idea how reliable those two sources are. Perhaps consider rewording it. From a quick google search, the call has also been described as cawing/cawlike/"caw-caw". Bennv3771 (talk) 09:56, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The current revision has a sentence with a strange "because from because from" construction that is very hard to understand.

" They can be distinguished from the common raven (C. corax) because American crows are smaller, from the fish crow (C. ossifragus) because American crows do not hunch and fluff their throat feathers when they call and from the carrion crow (C. corone) by the enunciation of their calls.

Can someone nice clean this up? I would but I cannot figure the original intention behind the sentence. -- Diletante (talk) 22:21, 11 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A group of crows is called a murder. Drsruli (talk) 09:17, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Why isn't a "murder" of crows shown as the collective plural form of crows? Why hide it? Northernxy (talk) 01:03, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I know, but it ambiguously admissible in the Wiki. Why hide it? It's such an interesting English term for birds. Northernxy (talk) 01:08, 27 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been in poor shape for years. I don't think this article still remains as GA. 119.193.102.31 (talk) 10:50, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What areas are most in need of improvement? Darkskysunflowers (talk) 17:13, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The global range image lacks a key for what each color stands for. 2600:1011:B183:13:E436:A2FF:FE6F:5AC9 (talk) 00:29, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have now added a key. - UtherSRG (talk) 11:49, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Passed. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 01:10, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

This review is transcluded from Talk:American crow/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Monkeysmashingkeyboards (talk · contribs) 22:01, 28 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: Snugglebuns (talk · contribs) 05:13, 27 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Good Article review progress box Quickfail Long way from meeting any one of the six good article criteria Copyright violations Cleanup banners including {{cleanup}}, {{POV}}, {{unreferenced}} or large numbers of {{cn}}, {{clarify}}, etc. Article stability, no edit-warring Previous GA review issues still unaddressed Criteria: 1a. prose 1b. MoS 2a. ref layout 2b. cites WP:RS 2c. no WP:OR 2d. no CV 3a. broadness 3b. focus 4. neutral 5. stable 6a. free or tagged images 6b. pics relevant Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

Comments

I will start working on this tomorrow most likely. Feel free to leave me a message here or on my talk page if you have any questions. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 05:13, 27 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies, time got away from me yesterday. Going to get the bulk of the review done today.

@Monkeysmashingkeyboards: I am done going through the article if you would like to take a look at changes I have suggested and correct the few issues I saw. Let me know if you have any questions. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 22:41, 28 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've addressed the concerns, and I've changed source 48 as you've requested.

Regarding the laborious due to the difficulty in catching them part, these are the only two sources that go more in-depth on the topic, most of the other sources mentioning this is basically just a brief complaint in the process section.

Cheers! monkey_smashing^keyboards (talk) 16:18, 30 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect, changes look good except for the second sentence of #Description, not sure if it was accidental but you removed "legs, feet and bill" and left Its are also black. I don't want to assume what you were going for so I won't touch it.

Completely understandable, I worry that the #Relationship with humans section is a little too focused on mythology and folklore as opposed to their actual relationship with humans. Since there isn't much in the sources for why we have difficulty catching them and I couldn't find any good sources for domestication or anything in a cursory search, maybe a rename of the section? (spitballing here, Crows in culture, Representations of crows, Cultural depictions, etc.)

Other than those 2 things everything else looks good. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 20:46, 30 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

not sure if it was accidental but you removed "legs, feet and bill" and left Its are also black yeah, genuinely have no clue what I was doing there. I've fixed the issues. Cheers! monkey_smashing^keyboards (talk) 00:04, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wonderful! That change is good but you changed a bunch of the "its" to "it's" when they were correct before. Its is possessive, it wouldn't be replaced with it is or it has in the sentences below.

• #Taxonomy and systematics: It's scientific name means literally 'short-billed crow'
• #Subspecies: previously it's own species
• #Description: It's legs, feet, and bill are also black
• #Description: the crow uses a different area in it's brain
• #West Nile virus: which encourage reproduction of it's mosquito vectors
• #Status and management thus the campaign was halted due to it's ineffectiveness

English is weird, especially since 's is used for possessives with other nouns. Also, there are quite a few grammar and punctuation mistakes that I missed before. It could really use a good copy edit by WP:GOCE. I'm going to place the review on hold until those issues get fixed. Once a copy edit is done just leave me a comment here (or on my talk) and I'll finish up the review. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 15:18, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Snugglebuns I've fixed the it's, don't know how I didn't see my error earlier. Cheers! monkey_smashing^keyboards (talk) 15:49, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate you fixing the its, but the article will still need to be copy edited. You or someone else can complete it. Most of the mistakes are punctuation. I know that requests to the guild can take time to get fulfilled, so I'm happy to wait. I'd rather pass a good article that meets all the criteria if it takes some time to get it right than to fail the article. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 20:22, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Snugglebuns I've went through the article again, should be good now. Cheers, and thank you for taking the time to GA review this article! monkey_smashing^keyboards (talk) 20:35, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Monkeysmashingkeyboards: Ok, the main issues that are left are grammar and punctuation, nothing that needs rewritten. I will give it a quick once over to fix the bigger issues. I'll ping you when I'm done so you can see the changes I made and can make sure you're ok with all of them. - ok I'm done now if you would like to review it. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 23:13, 1 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Monkeysmashingkeyboards: Also, I noticed while I was doing that copy edit that bird in the lead doesn't need to be linked since the word before it passerine already has a link to bird in its article. Of course that's not one of the 5 criteria for passing so this is more of a recommendation/for the future =) otherwise, if you're ok with the changes I made then we can go forward with finishing.Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 00:27, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Snugglebuns I think we're good! monkey_smashing^keyboards (talk) 00:54, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Monkeysmashingkeyboards: Congratulations on your first GA =)

Concerns

• MOS:SEAOFBLUE - In the lead there are two instances of multiple wikilinks appearing as a single link. I am not going to choose which of those links are best or if there is a more focused link that can be used:
  • "passerine bird species"
  • "iridescent feathers"
• I removed 2 duplicate wikilinks (Corvidae in the lead and predators in #Reproduction) and added an archive link for the Spruce source.
• Reference 48, check comments on the table below, I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to split the reference into 2 and link directly to the overview page and the life history page, or if you want to keep it general.
• This is a pet-peeve more than anything, the article has oxford commas in some places and not in others. It would be appreciated if it could be one or the other.
• It would be nice to see some more info about why studying them is "laborious due to the difficulty in catching them." I saw information related to what it is about their behavior that makes it difficult to catch them in a few sources, that information could also be used to expand the #Relationships with humans section since that section is primarily folklore and mythology.
• Reference 39, full comment on the table below.

Reference spot checks

This table checks 11 passages from throughout the article (15.7% of 70 total passages). These passages contain 14 inline citations (15.7% of 89 in the article). Generated with the Veracity user script. Snuggle 🖤 (they/them/it) (talk) 19:00, 28 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
A 2012 genetic analysis of the genus Corvus calculated that the American crow diverged from a lineage that gave rise to the collared, carrion and hooded crows around 5 million years ago.
5		ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
It forms a hybrid swarm with American crow (sensu stricto) in coastal Washington and British Columbia.
11		onlinelibrary.wiley.com
C. b. paulus (Howell, 1913) – southern crow: southern United States. Smaller overall, bill also small.
14		Goodwin & Gillmor (1976) p. 88.
Ravens also soar for extended periods, unlike crows, which rarely fly more than a few seconds without flapping their wings.
24		avianreport.com
25		thespruce.com	web.archive.org		added an archive link here
Virtually all types of country from wilderness, farmland, parks, open woodland to towns and major cities are inhabited; it is absent only from tundra habitat, where it is replaced by the common raven. The American crow is a permanent resident in most of the US, but most Canadian birds migrate some distances southward in winter.
39		audubon.org			This source doesn't provide for "absent only from tundra habitat" and somewhat contradicts that statement by saying that they also aren't in "hot desert areas".
Studying the behavior of American crows is laborious due to the difficulty in catching them, resulting in much of their behavior, including daily routine, migration, molting, survivorship, age of first breeding, nestling development, and the nature of nesting helpers being poorly studied.
3	c	birdsoftheworld.org
42		doi.org
Offspring from a previous nesting season will usually remain with the family to assist in rearing new nestlings. American crows do not reach breeding age for at least two years.
48	a	birds.cornell.edu			This link needs to be updated to the sites new address, I was able to find the info that I believe was originally linked here.
The disease runs most rampant in the subtropical conditions which encourage reproduction of its mosquito vectors among which Culex tarsalis is most significant. Mortality rates appear to be higher than those in other birds, causing local population losses of up to 72% in a single season.
48	b	birds.cornell.edu			Same as above, the link needs updated, the referenced information is on the "Life History" page.
57		doi.org
American crows, like other corvids, are highly cunning and inquisitive. They are able to steal food from other species, often in creative ways. One example shows a group of crows stealing a fish from a Northern river otter: one bird pecked the otter's tail to distract it while other birds swooped in and stole the fish.
3	d	birdsoftheworld.org
The intelligence and adaptability of the American crow has insulated it from threats, and it is instead considered an agricultural pest.
3	e	birdsoftheworld.org
There is some suggestion that they may be a benefit to farmers, by eating insect pests and chasing off livestock predators like hawks.
63	b	romanticismatsu.com	web.archive.org

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.