A year ago I found a baby crow who had fallen out of his nest. We estimated his age at around 6 weeks.. He still had most of his baby feathers, and his eyes were still bright blue. He had a badly broken wing.

I had a really difficult time finding a vet for Crow. Most of them said that they didn't have the proper permits, or that they just didn't take wildlife.. the few that did still would not take any migratory birds. Many of them said that if I brought him in, they could euthanize him, but not heal him. I wasn't willing to let that happen. I finally found a vet the next day that would take care of him, and not make an issue of me keeping him (it is against federal law to keep a crow, even if it would die otherwise! What a stupid law.. it is possible to get permits to HUNT crows, but not to save them!) He spent a week there being treated for infection, but they couldn't save his wing.. it had to be amputated. Once he was healed, he had to have a permanent home, since he is disabled and can't live in the wild. I wasn't able to keep him, since I live with my parents, and they wouldn't let me keep a bird in the house, probably because I'm allergic to feathers.. it wouldn't have stopped me, though. Fortunately, I had a friend who has always loved crows, so Crow went to live with him.

Now it is a little over a year later, and Crow is a healthy, happy bird. We never did get around to changing his name (Crow was what the vet put on his prescription bottles, since I had not given them a name for him.. I wasn't going to name him until I was sure he would live), but he responds to Crow with a soft "caw" sound. He'll also make special clicking sounds for my friend (who is obviously Crow's favorite person), that we think are sounds of greeting. He communicates how he feels with different noises and postures.. but so far he doesn't speak english. He's still young, so he might learn.

I wonder how old Hagrid was when he started saying "hello"? If Hagrid's human reads this, let me know, ok?

Thanks for sharing your crow story!

Kelly