Being a crow, you would suggest they travel in groups 80% of the time, they are considered pests around the world, but did you know that a flock of these crows are called a murder? Or that people have countless ways that they kill these birds, they aren’t succeeding.  This crow is known as the common crow, or corvus brachrynchos. They are common across over half of the world. They live in warmer places, and of course don’t live in the north and South Pole.

                  

American Crows are black from beak to toe. Adults have a light violet-blue gloss on the body and a greenish-blue gloss on the wings. The eyes are dark brown. Nasal bristles cover the basal third of the upper mandible. Both male and female are similar. Young have duller plumage than adults. Their blue-gray eyes turn brown as they mature. It got its name because it is commonly spotted around California. They live in open areas with nearby trees. Agricultural and grassland areas are ideal habitat for crows to forage for their food. American crows will also use nearby woodlots and forest edges for breeding and roosting. American crows thrive in suburban neighborhoods and urban parks, as well as in coastal habitats.

 

The Crows diet is varied: They’re omnivores & eat almost anything they can. Their diet consists of: fruits, grains, nuts, acorns, snails, mussels, smaller birds, eggs, rabbits, mice, toads, crayfish, snakes, lizards, salamanders, rats, grasshoppers, cutworms, June bugs, grubs, weevils, and many other insects. Being a bird they are commonly killed, and hunted by foxes, cats, humans, sometimes dogs, lions, tigers, bears, eagles, and other larger mammals. Humans have often persecuted Crows, but despite our attempts to exterminate crows by shooting them and bombing their roosts, crows are as common as ever, a tribute to their intelligence and adaptability.

 

They reproduce sexually, and their eggs are bluish-green eggs with blue or brow spots. Females spend five to 13 days building a nest in the fork of a tree. The nest is often supported by two or three horizontal branches and constructed six to 60 feet above ground. Males usually assist in its construction. The nest has a crudely built foundation, about two feet wide and nearly a foot thick, and is composed of large sticks and twigs. The nest bowl is built of smaller twigs woven with strands of bark and lined with soft bits of shredded bark, moss, plant fibers, grass, feathers, wool, fur, rootlets or leaves.

 

American Crows are abundant throughout the United States, despite earlier attempts to exterminate them. They are well adapted to life among humans. Their numbers are increasing in Washington, especially in urban areas such as Seattle. They were absent in the Columbia Basin until recently, but with the production of orchards and of urban plantings that provide nesting trees, American Crows have spread into this part of Washington as well. The spread and increase of American Crows poorly affects a number of other species that are not able to compete with the aggressive and adaptable crow.

 

The fact that they are not going extinct is both a good and bad thing, good because people can keep learning about them, they decrease the amount of mice and rats in the area they live in, and bad because they may continue to destroy crops, kill other animals that are smaller, and use plants for unknown/known reasons. That also includes using them for nests, building food “storages”, and building mating areas.

 

The caws of crows can sound different to human listeners. Within the same group of crows in a limited territory, there can be considerable variation in how the caws sound to a listener, and it has also often been noted that crows in different parts of the United States sound different from each other. In addition to the distinctive caws, crows also make a variety of other sounds including, but not limited to, imitations of sounds of other species, including elements of human speech. Of particular interest is a whole variety of other crow vocalizations that don't fit into the above categories, are fairly low volume and may be used by one crow alone or among a group of crows.

 

Author: Neah S

Published: February 2007

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Sources: www.answers.com

http://www.answers.com/corvus%20brachrynchos

www.google.com

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=the+american+crow

www.animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Corvus_brachyrhynchos.html

www.birds.cornell.edu

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/American_Crow.html

www.aviary.owls.com

http://aviary.owls.com/crow/crow.html

www.audubon.org

http://www.audubon.org/bird/BoA/F18_G1b.html

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http://museum.nhm.uga.edu/gawildlife/birds/Passeriformes/cbrachyrhynchos.html