Zangazanga
Well-known member
Hello,
If travel can broaden experience, and make me question what I think I know, well perhaps a field guide, purchased for a trip, can as well.
In eastern Afghanistan for the past few months I have seen crows that quite different from the American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) that I knew as a common bird around where I grew up. Looking through my local bird guide (Princeton Field Guides Birds of Central Asia:Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan by Raffael Ayé, Manuel Schweizer & Tobias Roth) it seemed quite obvious to me that I must be seeing Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix).
But now I have taken a trip to India (and purchased the Helm Field Guides Oxford Birds of the Indian Subcontinent Second Edition by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp). And I have been seeing similar birds to those seen in Afghanistan. According to the field guide I have been using in India, these crows should be House Crow (Corvus splendens).
The attached photos were taken in eastern Afghanistan October 12. I had ID'ed the bird as a Hooded Crow, but based on the images in my Indian guide, I now think it looks better for House Crow.
eBird does not show any reports of House Crows at all in the country. Hooded Crows have been reported quite regularly (however the total number of reports from Afghanistan is not very large, so if I have all my reports wrong it would skew the data alot.
What bird is this?
If travel can broaden experience, and make me question what I think I know, well perhaps a field guide, purchased for a trip, can as well.
In eastern Afghanistan for the past few months I have seen crows that quite different from the American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) that I knew as a common bird around where I grew up. Looking through my local bird guide (Princeton Field Guides Birds of Central Asia:Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan by Raffael Ayé, Manuel Schweizer & Tobias Roth) it seemed quite obvious to me that I must be seeing Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix).
But now I have taken a trip to India (and purchased the Helm Field Guides Oxford Birds of the Indian Subcontinent Second Edition by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp). And I have been seeing similar birds to those seen in Afghanistan. According to the field guide I have been using in India, these crows should be House Crow (Corvus splendens).
The attached photos were taken in eastern Afghanistan October 12. I had ID'ed the bird as a Hooded Crow, but based on the images in my Indian guide, I now think it looks better for House Crow.
eBird does not show any reports of House Crows at all in the country. Hooded Crows have been reported quite regularly (however the total number of reports from Afghanistan is not very large, so if I have all my reports wrong it would skew the data alot.
What bird is this?
