About Crows

One of the bullies among birds is the crow. This bird dominates the the other birds in the flock it joins for the winter and can be seen strutting about snagging the crumbs before any smaller birds can get them.

Identification

Crows belong to the Corvidae family of birds. The other members of this family include the jays, nutcrackers, magpies, jackdaws, and ravens. Crows have pitch-black feathers. They usually also have black beaks and black feet. To tell the difference between a crow and a raven, look at the tail when the bird is flying. Crows fly with their tails fanned out. Ravens don't have fan-shaped tails.

Type

Worldwide, there are at least 20 species of crow. Four types live in the United States. The largest is the American crow at 17.5 inches. Northwestern crows reach a mature length of 16 inches. Fish crows are slightly smaller at 15.5 inches, and the smallest, Tamaulipas crows, are an inch smaller than that.

Geography

While American crows range all over this country, the other three species in the US have very different territories. The Tamaulipas crow had never been seen in this country until 1960, when it was observed in south Texas. Northwestern crows can only be found along the northwestern Pacific coasts and its islands. Fish crows range along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They also sometimes move up the inland river waterways.

Features

Crows lay one or two eggs at a time. The eggs are blue or greenish brown. Crows make deep croaking or cawing sounds and the Fish crow has two notes in its cry. Crows eat all kinds of food: seeds, insects, berries, fruit, nuts, fish, and smaller animals. They even know how to open shellfish. They fly high with a clam or a mussel in their beak. Then they drop the crustacean onto a rock so that it splits open. Quickly, before another predator can steal it, they swoop down for the meal.

Misconceptions

In the winter, all these crows roost with other birds in huge flocks. American crows like the most crowded company, joining several hundred thousand other birds in a flock. The other crows all roost in flocks with a thousand or more birds. This probably gave Alfred Hitchcock the idea for his 1963 horror film, "The Birds."