The crow family, corvidae, includes some unmistakable characters. It’s hard to confuse a magpie with anything else. The same goes for a jay. But for every colourful corvid, there are many others whose wardrobes are uniformly funereal. Distinguishing the predominantly black corvids of Britain and Ireland – carrion crow, rook, raven, chough and jackdaw – usually requires looking beyond the […]
Tag: Crows
Colony of world’s highest-flying bird under threat in Uganda
LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his binoculars to his eyes. Against the clear blue sky, on a bright September morning, at least 29 large birds circle effortlessly above on broad, dark […]
Crows Never Forget the Faces They Don’t Like, Study Shows
A person who angers a crow might be remembered for years. These intelligent black birds can spot a face once, recall it perfectly, and even warn others about it. They do not forgive easily, and they do not forget. Scientists have long known that corvids — the family that includes crows, ravens, and magpies — […]
Crows Only Known Animals Other Than Humans That Can Differentiate Between Geometric Shapes
Crows are widely known to be one of the most intelligent animals on the planet, along with elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans and dolphins. A new study has revealed that at least one crow species can recognize regularity in geometric shapes — the ability to pick out a shape that differs from others — a skill previously […]
Bird-shooting event legal despite complaints, provincial minister says
A “crow and magpie shoot” event that’s been the subject of numerous complaints to the province is legal and can go ahead as planned, Natural Resources Minister Ian Bushie told reporters Wednesday. The event, scheduled for Saturday, is hosted by the Woodlands & District Wildlife Association, a club in the Interlake. A poster advertising the […]
Kenya revives poisoning campaign to curb invasive Indian house crows
NAIROBI ― Introduced to East Africa in 1891, in Zanzibar, to deal with domestic food waste, Indian house crows are now wreaking havoc in Kenya: killing native small birds, likely spreading disease, damaging food crops, and generally being a nuisance at tourist spots, open-space parties and businesses. The country is now battling millions of invasive […]
Wild Cam: As snow decreases, wolf stomachs rumble
The first sign that Thomas Gable and his colleagues were approaching a kill site was the calls of crows and eagles cutting through the winter silence in northern Minnesota. The ecologist in the Voyageurs Wolf Project at the University of Minnesota was surveying wolf predation last winter when snowfall was particularly low. He and his […]
Counting Crows (and more) for Audubon’s Christmas bird count
One of the longest-running citizen science projects in the world has kicked off its 125th annual event. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC), administered by the U.S.-based nonprofit National Audubon Society, takes place each year from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5. The annual bird census collects valuable data that scientists use to track the health and […]