How many broods of young can a crow family produce in one year?
In general, American Crows have only one successful brood a year. Figure it like this: it takes from one to two weeks to build a nest (always a new one with each nesting attempt), 6 days to lays eggs (2-6 eggs, average of 4.7 in my study), 19 days of incubation (begun with the penultimate, or antepenultimate egg, i.e., next-to-last or next-to-next-to-last egg, depending on clutch size), 35 days in the nest before fledging (30-45), and then 6 weeks to 2 months to feed the young to independence. That adds up to nearly 4 months from start to finish. Even though American Crows are one of the earliest nesting species in New York (laying eggs the last week of March), they cannot hope to pull off two broods a year. In my study population if a nest fails after the first week or two of May, the pair does not attempt to renest in most years. On occasion in some years some pairs will renest rather late after a latest failure. The latest young I have banded hatched 7 June. Nest success is 50% (ave
