Male American Crow for Placement

The Cornell Raptor Program (CRP) is rehoming our 2-year-old male American Crow, Oswald (Oz). Oz was found in Wisconsin in 2022 with evidence of imprinting and angel wing and moved to the CRP. Oz is fully flighted and otherwise in good health; the angel wing noted upon his entry into rehabilitation appears to have resolved. He has also received annual West Nile Virus vaccines. Oz is playful, intelligent, and affectionate with certain people.

He solves puzzles very quickly and loves to perform trained behaviors and learn new ones. His training includes stationing when handlers are entering/exiting the room, flying to the arm, placing a wood coin in a box, solving puzzle toys, catching a spring in midair, scale, laser, and crate/carrier training is in-progress (gets into the carrier but still exhibiting signs of stress when the door is closed).

Historically, Oz is fairly selective in his people preferences. For a few of his handlers, he is very well behaved and responsive as noted with all of his learned behaviors and enrichment activities. For others, he is not as engaged and will demonstrate some less desirable behaviors such as pecking at their hands/arms and shoes at times. Occasionally he takes a dislike to certain handlers and will fly at them, land on their shoulder, and peck their arm or head. He is a little hesitant with new people entering his room and may fly around if startled and takes some warming up before engaging with a new handler. He is not very food motivated and needs a lot of attention.
Our program does off-site on-the-glove public education programs and our birds’ primary handlers are students who are less experienced and change over time. We think that Oz would do better in a program with more consistent long-term handlers that can spend more time interacting with him.

Please contact Meghan Jensen (mj632@cornell.edu), Program Manager, and Heather Huson (hjh3@cornell.edu), Director of the Cornell Raptor Program, for further information.