As the Crow Flies #3

This piece has been featured in the FAA Group, Ravens and Crows.... more

by J McCombie

Title

As the Crow Flies #3

Artist

J McCombie

Medium

Painting - Photographic

Description

This piece has been featured in the FAA Group, "Ravens and Crows".
American Crows are familiar over much of the continent: large, intelligent, all-black birds with hoarse, cawing voices. Their flight style is unique, a patient, methodical flapping that is rarely broken up with glides.
A large, long-legged, thick-necked bird with a heavy, straight bill. In flight, the wings are fairly broad and rounded with the wingtip feathers spread like fingers. The short tail is rounded or squared off at the end.
American Crows are all black, even the legs and bill. When crows molt, the old feathers can appear brownish or scaly compared to the glossy new feathers.
American Crows are very social, sometimes forming flocks in the millions. Inquisitive and sometimes mischievous, crows are good learners and problem-solvers, often raiding garbage cans and picking over discarded food containers. They￿re also aggressive and often chase away larger birds including hawks, owls and herons.
American Crows are common birds of fields, open woodlands, and forests. They thrive around people, and you￿ll often find them in agricultural fields, lawns, parking lots, athletic fields, roadsides, towns, and city garbage dumps. They are common sights in treetops, fields, and roadsides, and in habitats ranging from open woods and empty beaches to town centers.
Despite its tendency to eat roadkill, the American Crow is not specialized to be a scavenger, and carrion is only a very small part of its diet. Though their bills are large, crows can￿t break through the skin of even a gray squirrel. They must wait for something else to open a carcass or for the carcass to decompose and become tender enough to eat. They usually feed on the ground and eat almost anything ￿ typically earthworms, insects and other small animals, seeds, and fruit but also garbage, carrion, and chicks they rob from nests.
American Crows congregate in large numbers in winter to sleep in communal roosts. These roosts can be of a few hundred up to two million crows. Some roosts have been forming in the same general area for well over 100 years.
Young American Crows do not breed until they are at least two years old, and most do not breed until they are four or more. In most populations the young help their parents raise young for a few years. Families may include up to 15 individuals and contain young from five different years.
Crows are crafty foragers that sometimes follow adult birds to find where their nests are hidden. They sometimes steal food from other animals. A group of crows was seen distracting a river otter to steal its fish, and another group followed Common Mergansers to catch minnows the ducks were chasing into the shallows. They also sometimes follow songbirds as they arrive from a long migration flight and capture the exhausted birds. Crows also catch fish, eat from outdoor dog dishes, and take fruit from trees.
Crows sometimes make and use tools. Examples include a captive crow using a cup to carry water over to a bowl of dry mash; shaping a piece of wood and then sticking it into a hole in a fence post in search of food; and breaking off pieces of pine cone to drop on tree climbers near a nest.
The oldest recorded wild American Crow was at least 16 years 4 months old when it was recaptured and rereleased during a banding operation in New York. A captive crow in New York lived to be 59 years old.
The American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) is a large passerine bird species of the family Corvidae. It is a common bird found throughout much of North America. American crows are the new world counterpart to the carrion crow and hooded crow, occupying similar niches in the ecosystem. It is one of several species of corvid that are entirely black, though it can be distinguished from the other two such birds in its range￿from the common raven (C. corax) by size and behavior and from the fish crow (C. ossifragus) by call. American crows are common, widespread and adaptable, but they are highly susceptible to the West Nile virus. They are monitored as a bioindicator. Direct transmission of the virus from American crows to humans is not recorded to date, and in any case not considered likely. Although the American crow and the hooded crow are very similar in size, structure and behavior, their calls are different. The American crow nevertheless occupies the same role the hooded crow does in Eurasia.
Crows have been killed in large numbers by humans, both for recreation and as part of organized campaigns of extermination. American crows are protected internationally by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Despite attempts by humans in some areas to drive away or eliminate these birds, they remain widespread and very common. The number of individual American crows is estimated by BirdLife International to be around 31,000,000. The large population, as well as its vast range, are the reasons why the American crow is considered to be of least concern, meaning that the species is not threatened.

Uploaded

January 25th, 2016