- Corvus brachyrhynchos
Identification
L. 17-21" (43-53 cm). Distinctive, stocky black bird with stout bill and fan-shaped tail.
Similar Species
The smaller Northwestern Crow has hoarser voice; the larger Common Raven has wedge-shaped tail.
Distribution
Breeds from British Columbia, central interior Canada, and Newfoundland south to southern California, Gulf Coast, and Florida. Winters north to southern Canada.
Taxonomy
Consists of four species.
Subspecies1
- C. b. brachyrhynchos - Central and e Canada to e-central US; winters to se US
- C. b. hesperis - N British Columbia to sw US and n Baja California
- C. b. pascuus - Peninsular Florida
- C. b. paulus - Eastern United States
Habitat
Deciduous growth along rivers and streams; orchards and city parks. Also mixed and coniferous woods, but avoids closed coniferous forests and desert expanses. Gathers in large flocks in fields in spring and fall.
Behavior
Nesting
4-6 dull green eggs, spotted with dark brown, in a large mass of twigs and sticks lined with feathers, grass, and rootlets, and placed in a tree. Intelligent, wary, virtually omnivorous, and with a high reproductive capacity, the American Crow is undoubtedly much more numerous than it was before the arrival of settlers.
Feeding
An opportunist in its feeding, the American Crow consumes a great variety of plant and animal food: seeds, garbage, insects, mice.
Vocalization
Familiar caw-caw or caa-caa
Its nest-plundering is decried, but in orchards and fields it destroys many injurious insects such as grasshoppers and cutworms. However, the labeling of birds as either "harmful" or "useful" is misleading and antiquated. Crows do destroy many eggs and nestlings of woodland and meadow birds, but they also weed out the weak and feeble, and they alert the animals in a neighborhood when danger approaches.
References
- Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
