Bird of the Week: The Crow
ellow and fair citizens of Birdland, welcome!
We bring forward to you on this very day the American crow, who has occasionally been referred to as a member of the Corvus brachyrhynchos species within the Corvidae family.
Said skittish, gregarious crow is shown below in all his natural splendor and dark-violet sheen.
Understand that these ruffians of the ether are all too well known for chasing away hawks, owls , and hooligans both two-legged and four.
The cacophonous brutes range all over the United States and even west through the territories just explored by Lewis and Clark.
Scientists, trappers, merchants, and both gentlemen and ladies of late hours and questionable character have all noted the following about the common crow:
- Crows can count.
- A wise frontiersman will beware! Corvus brachyrhynchos has been known to travel/roost in a murder of 200,000 or more.
- Crows seem to have the unlikely ability to learn and solve puzzles.
- You can listen to (and learn more about) the American Crow from the town crier and world authority Cornell Lab of Ornithology site.
See you by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
References used for this post are listed below:
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Wikipedia
- Audubon Society
- U.S. Geological Survey
- The National Audubon Society’s “The Sibley Guide to Birds”
- ”Birds Of North America” published by Golden
- ”Birds of New England” from Smithsonian Handbooks