American Crow

Corvus brachyrhynchos
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Uncommon resident throughout campus, foraging on a wide variety of food items (fruits, small animals, and human refuse). Populations have increased in the Stanford area over the past few decades.		  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
FM?
I: 18 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
SHRUB
0 - 70 feet
MF+
4-6 (3-9)
MONOG?
(COOP)
F: 28-35 DAYS
MF+
BREEDING: Woodland, farmland, orchards, and tidal flats; riparian woodland in arid regions. 1 brood, 2 in s.
DISPLAYS: Courtship: males wheel and dive in flight pursuit of female; in tree or on ground, male spreads wings and tail, fluffs body feathers and bows several times to female while singing "rattling" song. Pair perch together, preen and bill. Male occ performs song-flight.
NEST: In conif or decid tree, shrub, rarely on ground; of branches, twigs, and bark, lined with shredded bark, moss, grass, feathers, hair, leaves. Built in 5 - 13 days.
EGGS: Bluish-green to olive green, marked with browns, grays. 1.6" (41 mm).
DIET: Insects, other invertebrates, carrion, small vertebrates, bird eggs, nestlings; seeds, esp corn, fruit, nuts. Ejects pellets.
CONSERVATION: In winter partially migratory within N.A. Rare cowbird host. Damage to poultry, game, songbirds, and variety of crops has led to extensive control efforts, often using dynamite, directed at fall and winter roosts killing tens of thousands per roost.
NOTES: Occ breed cooperatively with yearling helpers; usu breed in small colonies in w. Female fed during incubation. Break mollusk shells by dropping onto rocks from above. Immense winter roosts of up to hundreds of thousands.
ESSAYS: Decline of Eastern Songbirds; Eye Color; CooperativeBreeding; Pellets; Communal Roosting
REFERENCES: Goodwin, 1976; Kilham, 1984; Knight et al., 1987.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).