North American Crow Habitats: Black Bodies, Cup Nests, Green Eggs

Summary: North American crow habitats summers and year-round in Canada and in the United States produce black bodies from green eggs in cup nests.

American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos); Seattle, King County, northwestern Washington; Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, 10:58: Ingrid Taylar from Seattle, WA, USA, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

North American crow habitats appall arborists, master gardeners and master naturalists through Corvidae family wildlife associations with crop raids and noisy communal roosts within distribution ranges in Canada and the United States.

American crows bear their common name from North American distribution ranges and 20-plus harsh, loud, rapid calls and the scientific name Corvus brachyrhynchos as short-beaked ravens. Ornithologists consider hargravei, hesperis and pascuus subspecies since Christian Ludwig Brehm's (Jan. 24, 1787-June 23, 1864) classification in 1822 of the nominate Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos subspecies. Bill shapes, body sizes and distribution ranges decide American crow subdivisions as eastern large-sized brachyrhynchos, Florida mid-sized pascuus, southern small-sized hargravei and western small-sized hesperis subspecies.

Fifteen-year lifespans expect farm woodlots, forest and woodland edges, open forests and woodlands, orchards, tree-edged, tree-scattered backyards, farmlands, grasslands and parklands and wooded islands and suburbs.

January through June facilitate brooding one three- to eight-egg clutch, followed by another in southern states, at ground-level or 10- to 70-foot (3.05- to 21.34-meter) heights.

Parents-to-be generate earth-lined, mud-bound, 9-inch- (22.86-centimeter-) high, 4.5-inch- (11.43-centimeter-) deep, 6- by 7-inch (15.24- by 17.78-centimeter) inner, 22- by 26-inch (55.88- by 66.04-centimeter) outer diameter nests. Bark-, stick-, twig-, vine-held, bark-, feather-, fur-, grass-, hair-, moss-, root-lined cup nests honed in 12 days house semi-glossy, smooth to semi-rough, subelliptical to oval eggs. Mothers-to-be implement 16- to 18-day incubations before the last 1.42- to 1.85-inch- (36- to 47-millimeter-) long, 1.02- to 1.22-inch- (26- to 31-millimeter-) wide egg is laid.

Eagles, great horned owls, peregrine falcons, raccoons, ravens, red-tailed hawks and snakes jeopardize North American crow habitats seasonally and year-round in Canada and the United States.

Initiation of incubation keeps a three-day difference between the first and the last black-olive, gray, olive, olive-brown, purple-blotched, speckled, spotted, blue-green, gray-green or olive-green egg's hatching.

The skin of blind, clumsy, helpless, naked hatchlings looks at first pink or pink-flesh and then brown-gray until sparse downy coats leave heads and upper-parts gray-brown. Nestlings manage on care, food and guidance from monogamous parents and the previous year's offspring while feathering as 20- to 30-day-olds and leaving nests as 35-day-olds. Adults need acorns, barley, beans, beechnuts, buckwheat, clams, corn, crayfish, fish, frogs, insects, mice, mussels, peas, pumpkin, rabbits, sorghum, spiders, squash, turtles, walnuts, wheat and worms.

North American crow habitats offer winter's coldest temperature ranges, from Newfoundland through Florida, at minus 45 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 to 1.66 degrees Celsius).

Almond, apple, bayberry, cedar, cherry, cranberry, dogwood, fig, five-finger, grape, hemlock, juniper, maple, oak, pine, poison-ivy, poison-oak, pokeberry, sour-gum, sumac, walnut and winterberry promote American crows.

Black bills, brown narrow, pointed tails, brown wings, dull black, fluffy, loose, non-glossy plumage, eyes browning from gray-blue and mouths blackening from red quicken juvenile identifications. Black bills, feet, heads, legs, tails and underparts, finger-like wingtip feathers, green-shining black upper-parts and round- or square-ended short tails reveal broad-, round-winged, dark-eyed, thick-necked adults. Non-soaring, slow, steady flapping on 33.47- to 39.37-inch (85- to 100-centimeter) wingspans suggest 15.75- to 20.87-inch (40- to 53-centimeter), 11.15- to 22.05-ounce (316- to 625-gram) adults.

North American crow habitats transmit 20-plus calls, from begging, high-pitched, nasal sounds by nestlings to extended, grating, harsh, hoarse, loud, rambling caws, clicks, coos and rattles.

American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) egg in permanent collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis: Michelle Pemberton/The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos); Seattle, King County, northwestern Washington; Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, 10:58: Ingrid Taylar from Seattle, WA, USA, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corvus_brachyrhynchos_-Seattle,_Washington,_USA-8_(1).jpg

American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) egg in permanent collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis: Michelle Pemberton/The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Childrens_Museum_of_Indianapolis_-_American_crow_egg.jpg

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Brehm, Christian Ludwig. 1822. "Corvus corone Weiß = Corvus brachyrhynchos." Beiträge zur Vögelkunde in vollstandigen Beschreibungen mehrerer neu Entdeckter und vieler seltener oder nicht gehörig beobachteter deutscher Vögel, zweiter band: 56. Neustadt-an-der-Orla, Germany: J.K.G. Wagner.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33116043

Coues, Elliott. January 1899. "The Finishing Stroke to Bartram: C. a. pascuus." The Auk, vol. XVI (old series vol. XXIII), no. 1 (January-March): 84.
Available via SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) @ https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v016n01/p0083-p0084.pdf

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Corvus brachyrhynchos Brehm, CL 1822." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Passeriformes > Corvidae > Corvus.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/pass.html

Phillips, Alan R. (Robert). October 1942. "A New Crow From Arizona: Corvus brachyrhynchos hargravei subsp. nov." The Auk,  vol. 59,  no. 4 (October-December): 574-575. Lancaster PA: The American Ornithologists' Union
Available via SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) @ https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v059n04/p0573-p0575.pdf

Ridgway, Robert. 1887. "C. americanus hesperis Ridgw. California Crow." A Manual of North American Birds, page 362. Philadelphia PA: J.B. Lippincott.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7567617