In most states, crow hunting season runs somewhere between late summer or early fall and late winter or early spring, but the exact dates, legal days of the week, and bag limits are set state by state. Federal law caps any state’s season at 124 days a year and imposes a few other limits; everything else is up to your state wildlife agency.
When States Open and Close Crow Season
Season structures vary widely. Some states open in early September and close in late February or early March. Others start as early as mid-August and run into April. A number of states split the season into two segments with a gap between them. Season length ranges from the full 124 days the federal framework allows down to considerably shorter windows.
Day-of-week restrictions are common. Many states allow crow hunting only on three or four designated days each week, which is partly a population management tool and partly a way to spread the 124-day cap across a longer calendar. Some states also close crow season during overlapping deer firearms seasons.
Bag limits are all over the map. A significant number of states impose no daily or possession limit at all, treating crows as abundant agricultural pests. Others set specific daily limits. Dates and limits can change from year to year, so confirm your state’s current regulations with the wildlife agency before you go.
Legal shooting hours generally follow the migratory bird standard of half an hour before sunrise to sunset, though some states set slightly different windows.
The Federal Rules Every State Has to Follow
Crows are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which means you cannot take them without legal authorization.1U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 That authorization comes through state seasons established under 50 CFR 20.133. Every state except Hawaii can set its own season, but four federal limits apply everywhere:2eCFR. 50 CFR 20.133 – Hunting Regulations for Crows
- No hunting crows from aircraft.
- No more than 124 total hunting days in a calendar year.
- No open season during the state’s peak crow nesting period.
- Crows may be taken only by firearms, bow and arrow, or falconry.
Hawaii is carved out entirely. Crow hunting is prohibited there because the Hawaiian crow, the ʻAlalā, is an endangered species that has been extinct in the wild since 2002.3U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The Alala Project
What Crow Hunters Don’t Need
Federal regulations define “migratory game birds” as ducks, geese, and swans; doves and pigeons; cranes; rails, coots, and gallinules; and woodcock and snipe.4eCFR. 50 CFR 20.11 – What Terms Do I Need to Understand Crows are protected migratory birds but are not on that game-bird list, and several rules that trip up waterfowl hunters simply don’t apply:
- No Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (duck stamp) is required.5U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Federal Duck Stamp
- No Harvest Information Program (HIP) registration is required at the federal level.
- The federal ban on recorded or electronically amplified bird calls targets migratory game birds and does not cover crows, so electronic callers are legal federally and permitted in most states.6eCFR. 50 CFR 20.21 – What Hunting Methods Are Illegal
- The federal three-shell shotgun capacity limit applies to migratory game birds, so an unplugged shotgun is legal for crows unless your state says otherwise.7eCFR. 50 CFR Part 20 – Migratory Bird Hunting
- The federal wanton waste rule requiring reasonable effort to retrieve downed birds applies to migratory game birds. No parallel federal rule exists for crows, though states can impose their own retrieval requirements.8eCFR. 50 CFR 20.25 – Wanton Waste of Migratory Game Birds
You still need a valid state hunting license and have to follow every state-specific crow rule.
Legal Methods and Equipment
Firearms, archery, and falconry are the three federally permitted methods.2eCFR. 50 CFR 20.133 – Hunting Regulations for Crows Shotguns are the usual choice; some states cap the maximum gauge (typically 10-gauge) or specify permissible shot sizes. Rifles and handguns are allowed in some states and prohibited in others, particularly in more densely populated areas. Electronic calls and decoys, both stationary and motion-style, are widely used and legal in most jurisdictions.
Killing Crows Outside the Regular Season
The federal depredation order at 50 CFR 21.150 lets private citizens take crows without a federal permit when the birds are causing specific kinds of damage:9eCFR. 50 CFR 21.150 – Depredation Order for Blackbirds, Cowbirds, Crows, Grackles, and Magpies
- Serious damage to agricultural or horticultural crops or livestock feed.
- A health hazard or damage to structures.
- A threat to a federally or state-recognized endangered, threatened, or candidate species.
There’s a condition people miss. Each calendar year, before you kill crows under this order, you have to attempt nonlethal control methods first, such as netting, flagging, propane cannons, trained raptors, or audio recordings. You don’t have to prove they worked, but you do have to have tried them that year.9eCFR. 50 CFR 21.150 – Depredation Order for Blackbirds, Cowbirds, Crows, Grackles, and Magpies
Crows taken under the order cannot be sold. You can possess and transport them, transfer them to authorized research or educational institutions, or dispose of them, and you must give federal, state, tribal, or territorial wildlife officers unrestricted access to the premises where control activities are happening.10eCFR. 50 CFR Part 21 Subpart D – Provisions for Depredating, Overabundant, or Otherwise Injurious Birds Many states also require their own depredation permit or prior authorization before you can act outside the regular season, so check state rules before relying on the federal order alone.
Penalties for Illegal Crow Hunting
Because the Migratory Bird Treaty Act covers crows, hunting them out of season, with prohibited methods, or in violation of other rules carries federal criminal penalties. A standard violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to $15,000 in fines and up to six months in jail.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 16 USC 707 – Violations and Penalties; Forfeitures
Penalties climb sharply if you knowingly take a crow with intent to sell or barter it. That’s a felony carrying up to two years in prison, and the federal government can seize and forfeit firearms, vehicles, and other equipment used in the offense.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 16 USC 707 – Violations and Penalties; Forfeitures State wildlife penalties stack on top of the federal ones. Crow hunting is lightly regulated compared with waterfowl, but it is not unregulated.