By Sally Siko
By Sally Siko
While out looking for warblers at Jordan Lake in New Hill, NC after the storm blew through this past weekend, I encountered this young crow enjoying a snack on a nearby tree.
The bird was quite tame and allowed me to approach it within a distance of 6ft!
It was really cool to get a close up look at this handsome guy as he happily chomped down his breakfast 🙂
As common as this species may be, they are wicked smart and usually camera shy despite their boisterous and often inquisitive personalities. This means that I haven’t had many opportunities to photograph one so these minutes were special for me indeed.
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 in our eastern count 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.
Because I encountered this bird well inland, I’m inclined to ID it as an American Crow.
Yet, since the remnants of Hurricane Ian had just blown through there is a decent chance that this might have been a Fish Crow.
Since the bird never vocalized I don’t think I can be certain either way.
Such is the way birding goes lol!
Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds
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
Crows are intelligent and curious birds. One might even say mischievous at times.
While a crow’s brain may seem small compared to a human brain, what matters is the size of the brain in relation to the size of the animal. Relative to its body, the crow’s brain and a primate brain are comparable. According to Professor John Marzluff at the University of Washington’s Aviation Conservation Lab, a crow is essentially a flying monkey.
Whether it’s a friendly monkey or more like a fiend from “The Wizard of Oz” depends a lot on what you’ve done to the crow (or any of its friends).
Moral of the story, be nice to crows!
Photo by @sally_siko .
