Is Alabama alone in this?

Steven Alexander

Steven Alexander

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So, I grew up never realizing other states have a crow "season".

Alabama has no closed season, and no bag limit. I told this to a guy when I was up north last October, and he told me I was wrong, that ALL states had to have seasons for them, because they were a migratory species. That's not true, as we do. I pointed him to our state's season dates and regs. Google's large-language model (what some of yall call "AI") claims that no state has a year-round open season on them also.

Any idea why we are different? Or, better yet, why don't other states allow year-round murdering of murders of crow?



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Alabama does have a season, its Jan 1-Dec 31.
:)
It was my understanding as well that states had to have a "season" for crows.
Never hunted them in ALabama and never put any thought into it.
Growing up in PA, our season was like Wednesday through Sunday all year round, if I remember correctly. I believe it was the only hunting allowed on Sunday.
 
Somewhere I got the impression AL also allowed shooting redwing blackbirds. I just checked but couldn't find it, but I'm pretty certain at one time in the recent past they were legal to kill.
 
Crows (native) are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Here's the list from FWS.

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My guess, either Alabama has some special exemption, or the crows in Alabama are non-native.

EDIT: my guess was wrong. Though protected by MBTA, states cam set whatever seasons they wish..
 
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Alabama has two species of crows, American crows and Fish crows.
Fish crows sound like they have a head cold when the caw.
 
I was told, many moons ago. Mexico had no limits on waterfowl. In negotiations with them, we set seasons on crows, in exchange, they would set limits, and seasons on waterfowl. They supposedly like to eat crows there.

Anyhow, this is what I was told. Could be wrong....
 
I think lots of places can hunt crows. NM is strictly no hunting on crows, so ive never really done it but a handful of times I found myself shooting at the black birds. The season where most states have a crow season, we have a reverse migration of protected mexican ravens. Since they are all here at the same time, many would be mistaken and killed. So shooting the black birds here is a big no no. Go to colorado though, and you can have some fun (or used to anyways, not sure about current regulations). Its probably been close to 10 years since ive even looked into crow hunting but the most fun I ever had on a dairy was shooting them over a fox pro with the "fighting crow call" uploaded from their website in that caller. The more you shot and leave lay on the ground, the better it got. At one point, there were literally crows falling out of the skies like basketballs trying to get to the ground when we had about 50ish dead scattered and that call running. It was quite something to watch. I could see why theres a market for crow decoys.
 
William Reinicke said:
I think lots of places can hunt crows. NM is strictly no hunting on crows, so ive never really done it but a handful of times I found myself shooting at the black birds. The season where most states have a crow season, we have a reverse migration of protected mexican ravens. Since they are all here at the same time, many would be mistaken and killed. So shooting the black birds here is a big no no. Go to colorado though, and you can have some fun (or used to anyways, not sure about current regulations). Its probably been close to 10 years since ive even looked into crow hunting but the most fun I ever had on a dairy was shooting them over a fox pro with the "fighting crow call" uploaded from their website in that caller. The more you shot and leave lay on the ground, the better it got. At one point, there were literally crows falling out of the skies like basketballs trying to get to the ground when we had about 50ish dead scattered and that call running. It was quite something to watch. I could see why theres a market for crow decoys.
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Crow hunting is a blast. Yes, they will "come in" to an injured crow. But the ones here wise up real fast. If they see another one get shot, you'll never see that crow again. They get hunted/shot around here, and act as such. 😆

I still can't wrap my head around only being able to shoot them certain days. I like that I can shoot them at every available opportunity here.

I bought some flocked Halloween decor ones from maybe Hobby Lobby several years back for near nothing. E-caller helps a lot too. Banded crow is a bucket lister for me. 😁
 
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