I recently (February 2021) began feeding a flock of 35 ravens in my backyard. In the spring and summer months I have 3 to 4 families of mallards and woodies raising their families in my pond and swamp. Am I setting myself up for a problem by continuing to attract ravens to my yard? Will they terrorize my ducks and steal their eggs? I guess I prefer seeing the ducks but enjoy the ravens also. Looking for advice.
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By woodies, do you mean wood ducks?– cskCommented Feb 21, 2021 at 21:57
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Ravens are also incredibly intelligent, if there is plenty of food that you are providing they may not make issues with the other ducks assuming there is plenty of food for both.– Nate WCommented Feb 26, 2021 at 0:31
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A flock of 35 ravens? Are you sure they aren't crows? At least in North America it's common for crows to be in flocks (even hundreds or thousands). But I don't think I've ever seen a flock of ravens - at most a few at a time, and usually one or a pair (couple). (Not that this is very relevant to your question...)– DrewCommented Mar 1, 2021 at 2:19
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Yes they are Ravens! Large shiny black and very smart. They seem to be attracted to my yard now that it is winter, I will see if they return when the snow melts and the Wood ducks return!– Lyle W DallmannCommented Mar 2, 2021 at 20:49
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1 Answer
If you have common ravens (Corvus corax) then you may have a problem there
Ravens are regular predators at bird nests, brazenly picking off eggs, nestlings and sometimes adult birds when they spot an opportunity. - wikipedia
Ravens are omnivores in the true sense, they will eat just about anything that's too small to fight back and too slow to get away.
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Corvids in general are opportunistic omnivores, with a tendency to scavenge and to grab any available live prey so even if it's a related species they might still be a problem. Ravens are particularly big and strong though, so likely to be more brazen at raiding nests– Chris HCommented Feb 24, 2021 at 16:04