It’s been a while since I looked at TP&W’s hunting guide. I was looking at the air rifle regs and came across the section on birds. The only unprotected birds they list were English sparrows, European starlings, Eurasian collared doves and pigeons, then referred everything else to some federal protected bird act.

So grackles and crows are out? Why are they protected?

Not entirely.

Attached File

There was some stuff about de-predicating crows...  but I think it got removed.

If I understand it correctly, we can no longer hunt crows for sport in Texas because we do not have a crow season.

Last I read, if you were a farmer and had crows hurting your crops you could ask your local game warden for a special permit.  Otherwise, you can't hunt them, which is a shame.

Nearly all native birds are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. There are a few exceptions like the Brown Headed Cowbird that can be removed with a permit and some training. Feral pigeons are open season though.

The crows and the grackles are the ones that bug me more than anything. We'll see some European starlings that come through, but the grackles will decent upon our yard 15 - 20, even more birds at a time, go into the dog pen and mop up on dog food. My one of my outside dogs is old, the other has brain damage and wasn't loved by his mother, they just sit there and watch. This is not a constant issue, but this is the time of year where they randomly show up.

The crows are just hell on our pecan trees in the fall. I'm not interested in having them around. We have a huge amount of cardinals, blue jays and mourning dove hanging around right now. I put out a little corn for them, just to help them out right now, guess who shows up to eat? The fucking crows.

I agree with you about the crows and pecans. They and the squirrels eat all of them.

Squirrels are considered a game animal, but where I am, it's essentially open season. Sept 1 - Aug 31. I'm thinking I want to try making stew.