|
|
The American crow is one of
the
few species which, in spite constant efforts by farmers (from the first
colonists) to eliminate them have actually increased in numbers.
Crows are
very intelligent birds, and have adapted well to urban life. This
web site is the outgrowth of a project which I started in 1980, when I
discovered that many of my students (8th
grade) were certain that a crows bill, eyes, and feet were yellow!
And that when dozens of crows were on the school fields every day.
Note that
everything about the crow is
black. Many confuse the crow with the raven,
which is also black. Crows are scavengers, so they compete with
ring-billed
gulls at school lunch areas, fast food parking lots, etc.
In the 1990's
the crow population
Orange county exploded. I have not heard a reason given for it,
but I suppose it could be related to the increase in human population.
This is hard on other bird species, not only those with which
they
compete. Crows are notorious nest robbers. It is thought
that crows are probably responsible for the disappearance of the
spotted doves.
Each evening
crows congregate in large
numbers on an athletic field a block away. This seems
to be an end of the day social assembly. It can get very noisy.
The 63 crows on this part of the baseball field are greatly out
numbered by
those on the softball and soccer fields.
They also
enjoy a communal shower in
the sprinklers. In addition to these and those on the athletic
fields, in the background you can see some of more than 100 (yes I
counted) on the wires across the street.
At dusk the
crows leave in waves,
heading for their night time roost.
A favorite
sport of crows is to pester
hawks. These are only a few of the crows which had been harrying
this migrating red-tailed hawk on its
way. [Taxonomy :
Classification]
[Birds] [ Back Yard Biology]
[ Science
Can Be Fun]