3 very large crows have been hanging around my house for the past 2 weeks.I threw some dog food outside near my deck so I feel that attracted them. When I have mentioned it to people they say how crows mean death & they are bad luck, etc.....I live in the country and have a corn field behind my house so the crows have to go somewhere but in the 8 yrs I have lived here I have never noticed them around my house until now. One will caw from time to time outside my bedroom window and by the time I go downstairs to the kitchen they are ontop of the garage roof. I have been tring to get a picture of them but they are so elusive. They seem to follow the same routine on a daily basis which i find facinating. I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on crows & myths about them...thanks

I've also always heard that when they are cawing and landing, that it means death, but that someone close is already dead. However, I don't believe it. I thought crows usually hung around open places, so hanging outside your bedroom window sounds creepy.

I was creeped out at first cause everyone told me crows are bad luck, etc....but they only hung around my house for about 2 weeks. I still see them in the corn field behind my house from time to time and hear their caws. I dont know where people came up with crows = death, makes no sense to me. They have to hang around somewhere. I talked to a bird expert about the crows and she told me all about them.

Hey girl! Nice to see you around again.
I can give you some insight on why people associate crows with death. First of all, a group of crows is called a "murder" and there is an old folktale that states that crows would form a tribunal to "judge" and punish bad behavior of a member of the flock. If that crow was found "guilty" he was killed by his fellow crows. Of course, this is just folklore, but the basis of this principle is that indeed a dying crow will often times be killed off by other flock members.

And an interesting fact, aside from crows(and ravens) being associated with battlefields (they are afterall scavengers), execution sites, and cemeteries...in England tombstones are also known as ravenstones.

I believe that the use of the word "murder" as a collective noun for crows (or magpies) is far too recent to be responsible for any folklore, nor do that many people even know the word in that definition. It may be far more likely that the term came about because of the crows' association with death rather than the other way around.

""The phrase, according to James Lipton in his An Exaltation of Larks, dates from 1450 in the form a mursher of crowys. It was a murther of
crowes by 1476. Whether it arose because murdering was thought to be a characteristic of crows or simply as a negative comment upon flocks of crows is not known. The mursher form is problematic, however, as we must wonder if it was not intended as murder but was istakenly
interpreted as such." -

TakeOurWordForIt.com Issue 173, page 2

Crows are interesting birds, yes a flock of them is called a murder, but I'm talking about the individual bird.

Crow: Law

There is a medicine story that tells of Crow's fascination with her own shadow. She kept looking at it, scratching it, pecking at it, until her shadow woke up and became alive. Then Crow's shadow ate her. Crow is Dead Crow now.

Dead Crow is the Left-Handed Guardian (female side). If you look deeply into Crow's eye, you will have found the gateway to the supernatural. Crow knows the unknowable mysteries of creation and is the keeper of all sacred law.

Since Crow is the keeper of secred law, Crow can bend the laws of the physical universe and "shape shift." This ability is rare and unique. Crow medicine people are masters of illusion.

All sacred texts are under the protection of Crow. The Creator's books are bound in Crow feathers. Crow feathers tell of spirit make flesh. Crow is also the protector of the "ogallah" or ancient records.

The Sacred Law Belts, or Wampum Belts, beaded by Native women long before the boat people or Europeans came to this continent, contain knowledge of the Great Spirit's laws, and are kept in the Black Lodges, the lodges of women. The law which states that "all things are born of women" is signified by Crow.

Children are tought to behave according to the rules of a particular culture. Most orthodox religious systems create a mandate concerning acceptable bahavior within the contxt of worldly affairs. Do this and so, and you will go to heaven. Do thus and so, and you will go to hell. Different formulas for salvation are demanded by each "true faith."

Human law is not the same as Sacred Law. Mosre so than any other medicine, Crow sees that the physical world and even the spiritual world as humanity interprets them, are an illusion. Great Spirit is within all. If an individual obeys Crow's perfect Good medicine death--going on to the next incarnation with a clear memory of his or her past.

Crow is an omen of change. Crow lives in void and has no sense of time. The Ancient Chiefs tell us that crow sees simultaneously the three fates--past, present and future. Crow merges light and darkness, seeing both inner and outer reality.

For more information, check out "Medicine Cards" by Jamie Sams and David Carson

Believe what you wish. But it's no Myth.

I live on an Island. Plenty of Sea Gulls and all different species of birds at all different times of year. You'll see everything from finches to blue jays.

Well I'll get down to the gist of it, when my father died and I've lived here at least 3 months out of the year for the past 30 years, a strange group of about 6 crows appeared on the power lines just outside the home with one or two of them drawing even closer on some metal supports for the awning hanging over the bay window in the front of the home.

My father passed in his sleep of a heart attack. It's not a situation where they are searching for roadkill or anything like that.

I hardly ever see crows and I'm out and about this island all the time. But that day, there were MANY MANY crows conveniently perched outside.

So don't tell me it's a myth. I've seen it with my own eyes, and i'm sure the old farmer's wives tale is based precisely upon what I myself witnessed.

These particular birds somehow sense death. It was kind of haunting to see but it's definitely a "myth" which has a basis in biological fact.

Crows sense Death.

When I had just begun the worst experience of my life, to add to my distress, a few crows began jumping at a skylight window in my apartment's bathroom ceiling. I did not die, but I did feel as though my life was going down the drain. Perhaps you have been having some thoughts about your life declining, attracting the crows.

Anyway, crows may appear to cheer us up, but we erroneously perceive them negatively in line with our preconceived negative image of them and any new negative thoughts we may be having. Maybe we should view them as messengers trying to tell us to snap out of it.

The European carrion crow, Corvus corone corone, upon which this myth is based, always arrived quickly at the site of a battle. The clues were probably the odor of blood, horse or human, but it's not impossible that they learned other clues in time, and learned to flock to the sound of cannon-fire or some such clue that told them there's be good munchies soon. There's even a Scottish folk song, The Twa Corbies, that imagines a discussion between two crows as they feed on the dead while the families of the soldiers move among the bodies, looking for their sons, fathers, brothers, to take home for burial.

I wouldn't be surprised if the origin of the belief was Celtic, and transmitted to North America with the very early settlers (1612-1783) who settled in the Eastern states, and of whom pockets of descendants who lived in mountainous areas (e.g. Appalachia)kept alive many of the old belief in various kinds of foretelling.

For them the crow was a very eerie bird, since the carrion crow they remembered was associated with death and battlefields. And whenever the battle ended, the crows were there before those who came to claim the bodies, just as if they had some mysterious foreknowledge.

So crows benefit from death and have evolved to sense it early, possibly even from the smell of wounds or even infections. American vultures, another carrion bird, can smell their next meal from a great distance. (European vultures have no sense of smell -- or at lease not a very good one.)

Crows and Ravens both have a lot of unique myths surrounding them.

In north America, Raven was usually a trickster deity, who could change shape. In most stories he was clever, but greedy. He was used to teach a lesson.

In Norse Mythology Odin had two Ravens Huginn (Ravin of thought) and Muninn (Ravin of memory). they would travel the world each day for Odin and collect news for him.

In Celtic Mythology there is a Fae known as Nemane. She took the shape of the Carrion Crow, and delivered the final blow to heroes on the battle field so they would not suffer.

In Greek mythology rests my favorite myth, of the crow/raven.

In one of the Greek tales, Coronis, the daughter of Phlegyes was pregnant by Apollo. Apollo left a white crow (or raven) to watch over her, but, just before the birth, Coronis married Ischys. The crow informed Apollo of this, and Apollo was not impressed. He killed Coronis and Ischys, and turned the crow black for being the bearer of bad news.

So, the raven has taken on many roles, most of which depicts it of being a messenger of sorts.