Incidental capture of American Crows in coyote‐sized box traps

ABSTRACT American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) are difficult to capture. I used a simple technique (box traps) to capture 151 crows incidental to my eastern coyote (Canis latrans) research at two study sites in eastern Massachusetts. Crows were captured at a higher rate during the spring (winter = 33 captures, spring = 70, summer = 22, and fall = 26). Among months, capture efficiency ranged from 0.7% in August to 8.5% in May, with an overall average of 4.1 crows captured per 100 trap days. Although other capture methods (e.g., net launchers and Australian crow traps) have been used to capture crows in greater numbers, box traps can be an important complement to the other capture techniques because they are transportable, easy to use, relatively cheap, and easy to obtain.