I saw one in a field last week. Looked quite old. Farmer did some land clearing so it's now visible from the road. Any others out there? Crows ain't stupid so I'd imagine most are for show or nostalgia.

Best scarecrow in the world is a dead crow on a pole.

That was just Wabi. Did you wave?

Not true. Have you seen Pelosi?

In the East the Indians didn’t need scarecrows, they put up their less functional gourds for purple martins instead. IIRC Audubon painted these on a Choctaw farm ca. 1842.

https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2018/10/alabamas-gourd-martin-house-tradition.html

Florida to New York, purple martin nesting season correlated to the agricultural season. Hang them up around your field and the martins chase crows from around their nests.

It worked so well for so long that those martins preferentially nesting around human habitations out-bred those nesting in the original old woodpecker cavity sites (as they still do out West) such that now Eastern purple martins are almost entirely dependent upon humans for nesting sites.

Interesting info. Thanks BW.