(Corvus brachyrhynchos)

The American Crow needs little description. It is a large (17 to 21-inch), completely black bird. It has a purplish gleam in strong sunlight. The tail is fan-shaped, the bill and feet strong and black.The only other large black bird is the Raven.

This sociable bird is found among deciduous growth along rivers and streams; orchards and city parks. It will also frequent mixed and coniferous woods, but avoids closed coniferous forests and desert expanses. Its voice, a loud caw caw or cah cah, is easily imitated.

The Crow breeds from British Columbia, central interior Canada and Newfoundland south to Southern California, the Gulf Coast and Florida. It winters north to southern Canada.

The nest is a well-made bowl of sticks lined with feathers, grass and rootlets built in a tree. There it lays 4-6 greenish eggs that are spotted with dark brown.

The Crows diet is varied: seeds, garbage, insects and mice. It is well-known for its nest-plundering, but in orchards and fields it destroys many injurious insects. Crows do destroy many eggs and nestlings of woodland and meadow birds, but they also weed out the weak and feeble, and they alert the animals in a neighborhood when danger approaches.

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