Now here’s another bird I’ve seen about a zillion times yet have very few decent photographs of, a Crow.
As common as this species may be, they are wicked smart and often camera shy despite their boisterous and often inquisitive personalities.
That’s why I was stoked to be able to snap off a couple shots of this one from my car while driving through a campground last week on Cape Hatteras.
Sure, these are not the most epic of outdoor nature photos since the crow is chilling out on top of a picnic table but I sure was glad to be able to spend a few precious minutes photographing this handsome fellow at a relatively close range.

With their glossy black plumage and familiar croaking calls, even when at a great distance the American Crow is one of the easiest birds to ID in the field.
Or so you might think, lol!
In fact we’ve got another species of Crow here in North Carolina which can muddy up the waters of a definitive ID.
The second species is the Fish Crow and unfortunately they look nearly identical to the American Crow.
Other than the fact that Fish Crows are usually found near water (hence the name) it’s almost impossible to tell these two species apart other than by their call (fish crow- a horse sounding ca, caw ca caw vs. cawwww caawww of the American) and (sometimes!) upright or huddled posture while calling.

The truth is that despite the fact that I spotted this bird in the dunes near the ocean I’m not 100% certain weather this is a Fish or American Crow because it never vocalized.
Whichever the species I was glad to spend some time with him 🙂

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on my beloved 50MP beast, the @canonusa#5Ds