The highlighted species of today’s critter-a-day is the American crow, or Corvus brachyrhynchos. The real critter I am highlighting is a specific American crow who has been part of my life for almost 14 years, the brilliant and amazing critter I call Half Beak. The first photo I have of this incredible bird is below, dated June 2012! And I just saw her in the yard this week! Quite a run!
Over the last 30+ years, scientists have studied corvid (the crow bird family) intelligence and determined that they are incredibly smart and complex. Their brain-to-body size ratio is the same as humans. I think of Half Beak as a friend after all these years, not a wild bird. I can see the intelligence in her eyes, and I wonder what she thinks of us crazy humans when she watches me gardening or doing chores in front of the living room window.
I do not remember when we first noticed Half Beak. I imagine she was around the yard, and we noticed that her beak was malformed, so we started feeding her. I do remember we used to get the rotisserie chickens from the grocery store for $5.00 (how long ago that was!), and we would put the carcasses out for her on the lawn when we thought we’d eaten all the good stuff. Half Beak found more good stuff. She started hanging around, so we started supplementing the chicken with dry dog kibbles. She loves those, too.
We assume that Half Beak is a “she,” but there is no proof to support our assumption. We will likely never know for sure. In crows, the two sexes are very similar. There are differences in their behavior, size, and other traits, but Half Beak does not seem to care how we identify her as long as the kibbles keep flowing.
After knowing a creature for so long, we have some anecdotes that make us smile. For example, we were trapping rats after a rundown home in the neighborhood was leveled by bulldozers, and the rats ran to neighboring properties, including ours. We thought the dead rats might be a treat for the crows, so we set one out for Half Beak and her mate, Full Beak (We call all of her mates Full Beak–we have no idea if she’s had one mate or fourteen mates over the years!) Sure enough, the crows appeared thrilled…they ate the delicate, delicious parts of the rat and left the rest. Several days later, though, we noticed crow activity on the driveway, and when they cleared away, they had left us a fresh dead rat. Such a gift! Crows are known to bring all kinds of gifts to the humans they appreciate.
Another time, we had forgotten to put any kibble out. Half Beak was hangry. Leon was quietly reading in a chair just inside the living room window. He was startled when he heard loud cawing that seemed to come from inside the house. It turns out Half Beak was hanging upside down from the gutter above the window, screaming “FEED ME!” at him in crowanese. He did.
One of my favorite Half Beak moments came more recently. I was starting native plant seeds and was so proud that, for once, I included labels in the seed pots. I just happened to look out the bedroom window a few hours later to see my mischievous feathered friend up to no good:
I never did get those labels back where they belonged! Naughty girl!
Another trait to watch in Half Beak and her Full Beak mate is that they cache food in and around our lawn. If they have eaten their fill of kibble, they will take the food, dig a plug of grass out of the lawn, plant the food in the bare space, replace the plug, and add a leaf or two on top to hide the treat even further.
I am not sure the crows ever come back for the cached kibble. I do know that squirrels and neighbor dogs are unusually fond of our lawn.
Interestingly, crows are not among the better-studied birds in the world from a behavior standpoint because they are difficult to catch. They are just too smart. Their range covers virtually all of the US and Canada (except the tundra areas of the far north), and parts of northern Mexico.
American crows vary in size from 16″ to 21″, and their wing span can be 33″ to 39″. They can be distinguished from common ravens by their much smaller size (if you see them together), but also by some physical differences, especially in the heavier beak/heads of the raven, and in their flight pattern. Ravens tend to soar a lot more than crows. There are about five subspecies of crow with fairly subtle physical differences, including size variance and thicker and more slender bills.
One of the most noteworthy traits of crows is their winter roosting habit; thousands or even millions of birds will fly near dusk to their roosting spot. I experienced this at the University of Washington Campus near Bothell, and it was unbelievable. The cacophony and the vast number of birds were almost impossible to believe. And then, just after dark, silence. It was magical.
I was recently on a business trip to Oakland, CA, and while walking the streets at night, saw that crows were roosting in the street trees–tall sycamores deep in the heart of the city. They had found a way to make do.
Unfortunately, these birds can be too smart for their own good. They have raided crops and maddened farmers to the point where whole states have tried to eradicate them, even using dynamite to blast them out of roost trees. Horrible. Luckily, eradication has failed so most farmers have given up.
While crows seem incredibly common, their population has been decimated by the awful West Nile Virus that hit the US in 1999 and has been killing birds here ever since. Crow populations are down an estimated 45%, which is hard to believe when you see so many crows around! I’m grateful that Half Beak has avoided fatality from this disease.
We know that Half Beak breeds every year and raises young. We have even seen one of her offspring with a similarly shaped beak. Crows can mate as early as April, making bulky stick nests sitting in trees. It is shocking when the leaves fall in autumn, and you see a crow’s nest in a tree–this big, bulky mass that you never noticed before. The birds lay three to six eggs. Incubation lasts about 18 days, and the young fledge in just over a month.
Around my neighborhood, leaving the nest is the worst time for crows. The babies often fall from the nest before they are fully able to fly, and they get caught up in all manner of trouble, from cat predation to car strikes. I have angered crow families by trying to move fallen babies off the street. The parents take years to forgive me and will chase me down the street for a full year before they start to trust me again.
Crow families stick together for years. Last year’s young help raise this year’s young sometimes. The average lifespan of a wild crow is thought to be seven years, but they have been known to live to 40!
Crows recognize individual people, and they will be your friend if you do not scare them and you feed them. If you want them to nest on your property, you need to have some decent-sized trees for the nests. Developing a habitat that supports the insects and small mammals they need to raise their young will also encourage them to stick around. I’m hoping Half Beak sticks around for a few more decades. I look forward to our time together, working to figure each other out.
