Haven’t seen any official figures, but judging by the vast numbers (tens of thousands easily) I’ve seen on a roost and watching them stream in for hours (even after nightfall), 50 or even 100 miles away would be easy for me to accept. They have highly communal behavior, particularly in winter. See attached photo of a fish crow roost near where I live.
Hunting them also gives clues to distances. Some orchards I’ve hunted only produce a handful of local crows for the first 2 to 2 1/2 hours until they start showing up in larger numbers, assumedly straight off the roost. At a 25-35 mph cruising speed, that could easily be 85 miles or more, depending on wind conditions.
Maybe others on this forum have additional information. Hope this helps.
I saw 500+ last night in an area I'm not able to hunt. Your photo makes that seem highly insignificant. I'm trying to determine where they are headed during the day to see if I can find a place to hunt them. I've really started to love crow hunting and need to figure out these migrations and locations to hunt them. Thanks for the help.
I'm looking for opinions on how far Crows travel from roost to feeding areas?
Hi EatNCrow,
Around here they feed from several to thirty miles out in all directions.
If those five hundred scatter to feed you'll have a tough row to hoe on a morning shoot. Find where they roost and find some high ground within a couple miles. Take a good set of binoculars and be there before first light. If it's a quiet spot you'll hear them before you see them. Figure to spend the morning following and scouting. You might be surprised. Those five hundred may be a small fraction of the total roost.
Last winter I hunted Delta Pa for a few months. I had 1000 Crows comming to feed at a chicken house litter pile. I was hunting them in their flight zone. That’s how I discovered the Chicken House. Curiously I back tracked them each morning until I found a lookout on top of the highest ridgeline they were flying from downtown Lancaster Pa about 30 miles away just to feed Each morning. This particular chicken house was their first stop each morning. Then they would disperse into family groups and go every direction. I use Google Earth App on my phone to help scout new areas. That’s when I located several more chicken houses. Scout, Scout, Scout...... Good luck
Most of my morning hunts the crows feed within 10 miles of the roost. On rare occasions I have been in areas where they go out 20 miles from the roost. When they have to travel much more than this distance they sometimes form another roost to be closer to the feed!
Back in the early to mid 1990's I hunted an area that had 5 different roosts within a 100 mile radius of each other. That was when I was shooting 5,000 or more crows each season.
