• Diane
      Participant
      Chirps: 4
      I didn't know that their eyes changed colors like that! That's really interesting. Also, I am surprised at how well they tolerate those big, gaudy wing tags. Do untagged crows ever attack the tagged ones, thinking there is something wrong with them or that it is a stranger? Or is it that they are smart enough to realize "Ok, that's still my sister, even thought she has that pink thing on her"? Curious...
      • Chris
        Participant
        Chirps: 13
        I'm also disappointed that no expert responded to any unusual behavior that tagging the crows cause.
    • charlene
      Participant
      Chirps: 3
      I had no idea that crows were being studied and banded.  Great way to collect data and identify them. I have trouble keeping track of who’s who. That was very good news to hear they live to 17.
    • Katie
      Participant
      Chirps: 3
      I had no clue they could live 18+ years!
    • Susan
      Participant
      Chirps: 30
      That you have been following them for so many years!  And the three tags - I thought that leg bands lasted forever. Aren't the wing tags - and I noticed some kind of antennae on their backs in one shot - obtrusive or invasive in the crows' movements?
      • The local researchers haven't noticed anything to indicate that the tags impede movement. The tags usually stay on for several years, but not as long as the leg bands. Crow "AP" the longest lived of the research crows still had remnants of his wing tag at age 17. When they first get the wing tags they fuss with them, investigating the new adornments. However after a day or so they seem oblivious to their presence. The antennas  haven't been put on very many crows thus far and don't stay on for very long. They usually fall off in less than 1 year.
    • Student Birder
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      I was surprised that team members had to be hoisted up to the nests at the top of those tall trees.
    • Faith
      Participant
      Chirps: 6
      All of the different types of banding
    • Kendra
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      I wonder why males and females look alike when so many other species of birds have such sexual dimorphism. Do male crows not need to impress females visually? Maybe it's his sense of humor or some other sign of intelligence that makes him attractive. ;)
      • When the males and females look the same they are called sexually monomorphic. The males are slightly larger than the females but not enough for humans to easily notice the difference without taking measurements and that is why DNA testing is the best way for humans to tell the sexes apart. Crows do have some courtship displays. However there is more that could be researched about the American Crow courtship process. The local researchers don't witness the meeting of a crow with a mate or potential mates and the courtship period is thought to happen quickly perhaps. They don't know if the males need to impress the females visually. It is difficult to make an assessment since the local researchers don't witness much if any of the courtship process.
      • Eveline
        Participant
        Chirps: 17

        @Lee Ann van Leer Great question Kendra. Very interesting that so little is known about the courtship ritual. This is usually such a big part of what you read about whenever trying to learn about different birds from your standard guidebooks. Now I'm really curious why crows are so different (i.e., if it is in fact a short courtship period, then why? Does it make them vulnerable somehow?)

      • @Eveline Hello Eveline, Corvids in general don't show a lot of display for courtship. With the American Crows they typically form a long term pair bond so they aren't having to do a lot of courtship displays and rituals every year for breeding season like some other types of birds might do. Once the bond is formed it can last for many years or until one dies so the odds of a researcher observing that first time period that a new couple is pairing up for the first time is slim. That coupled with the difficulty in humans differentiating individual crows which can't be reliably told apart from another crow without them being tagged and or color-banded.  If you are observing unmarked crows you don't necessarily know if you are observing a male or a female, parent, partner, child etc reliably. In the course there is an offer for course takers to get a discount on Birds of North America (BNA) subscriptions. BNA is  our more in depth online encyclopedia of North American Birds. Here is an excerpt from Birds of North America, American Crow : Pair Bond Courtship Displays and Mate-Guarding. Courtship display, if it exists, is rare, judging by the paucity of reports on the subject (Good 1952). Allopreening, often actively solicited by either mate, occurs regularly, but largely ceases during incubation (Kilham 1989). Billing, seen infrequently, involves a mated pair gently fencing with their bill tips, and bill-grasping (Kilham 1989, CC). Members of a breeding pair stay in close contact during egg-laying stage (Caffrey 1992). Breeding male guards mate during time of sexual receptiveness. At start of egg-laying in Florida, males stood generally on 1 of 2 or 3 favorite perches, on the ground below the nest, on a fence post, or in a tree as far as 150 m away, watching for periods of 30 min. Males hardly fed their incubating mates during mate-guarding period; helpers fed the females (Kilham 1989). In California and Oklahoma, guarding males sit for hours at a time, with only short breaks, in obvious high perches near incubating females (CC). Copulation; Pre- And Postcopulatory Displays Based on Black 1941 , Kilham 1989 . During precopulatory display, both sexes crouch, bodies horizontal, wings out and drooping, and tails vibrating up and down; females use same display posture during courtship begging (accompanied by nasal “ waahs ”; CC). Sometimes this same display occurs in other context; juveniles give it to older siblings and some-times to each other (CC). Begging nestlings and fledglings assume the same posture and produce nasal “ waahs ” as well (CC). Males sometimes pick up objects as part of copulatory behavior. During copulation, male settles on female, waving his outstretched wings; female stands and vibrates her tail up and down while the male works his tail under hers. Loud, hoarse calls by female, audible 250 m away, heard during 13 of 30 copulations seen. Copulations occur on the ground, in trees, and on nests; last from 4 to 12 s. Reverse mounting occurs (Kilham 1989 ).

      • Chris
        Participant
        Chirps: 13

        @Eveline Sounds like an idea for a research project, albeit, it would be a difficult one to observe in the wild, since it seems difficult even under more controlled conditions like the researchers have.

    • Valerie
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      It's nice to know that crows can live for so long in the wild.  I didn't know about the need to be redundant with tagging - that's interesting!
    • Andrea
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      Three tags
    • Eye color changing in birds fascinates me. WHY do their eyes change color? WHEN do their eyes change color? is there some purpose for eyes being difference colors?
      • For crows the eye color is a cue for the recognition of juvenile status. The blue eyes show that they are babies.  The blue eyes change to their adult color within a month or two after they fledge (leave the nest). The pink inside out the mouth is another visual cue for crows to recognize that the crow is a young crow. The pink inside of the mouth can last up to two years.
      • Chris
        Participant
        Chirps: 13
        Sounds like another good advanced degree research project!
    • What it takes to be an ornithologist.  I just can't imagine myself climbing such tall trees and bringing down chicks and then climbing back up to put them back.  I like watching crows and wish the ones around me were banded so I could tell if I see the same one repeatedly.  I've seen crows do so many interesting things.
    • Jo Anne
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      I'm still mulling over the fact that the only truly reliable way of determining the sex of a crow is blood analysis.  I have been attempting to guess males( by what seemed to me to be useful) that in a pair one seems to have a slightly larger head due to more or ruffled feathers.  Is this at all reliable?
      • The size difference between male and female is so slight that even the crow experts don't always guess the sex correctly just by visual characteristics. Size can be deceptive and feathers can be fluffed up or smoothed down variably by a bird. So the only reliable way to sex crows is by DNA. Thanks for asking about this.
    • Kathryn
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      Definitely the wing tags for distance ID!  And I was interested to know how long the crows live.
    • Michele
      Participant
      Chirps: 5
      Most interesting --  the wing tags for distance identification!  So curious as to how these were developed, made, coded, attached.  Would love to learn more.
    • Peggy
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      What was most interesting to me is the focus on individuals, and the ability to stay with an individual bird through its life. To me, this brings understanding of the species to a whole new level - beyond the abstraction of “crow” to a specific, concrete, real life. To our untrained eyes, individual birds of a species look identical. We can’t sort out sibling relationships or even mates outside the breeding season. How much richer to know this crow is 17 years old, the brother of this bird and the mate of that one! How much more connected we become to a fellow creature when we are able to see it as a unique individual.
      • Chris
        Participant
        Chirps: 13
        I agree; well said!
      • Anne
        Participant
        Chirps: 5

        @Chris Yes, so true!

      • Anne
        Participant
        Chirps: 5
        We see our pet birds and other pets as individuals, so why not view crows and other wild animals the same way?
    • Desiree
      Participant
      Chirps: 16
      I was very happy (and surprised) to hear about the crows that had been tagged and observed for so long. I think it’s wonderful that the people working on the crow research are able to track family relationships. I really wish I could do this with the crows I feed, but unless one crow has some unusual feature or personality tic, I have a hard time telling the ones in my yard apart. I also was surprised and very charmed by the elderly crow’s white face feathers. In the picture he looks dignified and wise. I hope the younger crows are taking his advice.
    • Susan
      Participant
      Chirps: 3
      Interesting the number of tags used.  Did not realiza this.
    • Amanda
      Participant
      Chirps: 3
      I was a little surprised at how tolerant the crows seemed to be with the researchers. In my own personal study, I'd read accounts of crows remembering for years the faces of researchers and reacting adversely to their presence. Perhaps I was just misinterpreting what I saw in the lesson in that regard. And I was pleasantly surprised at how long the crows lived. I'm definitely in the love crows category, and I hope this work helps to improve the lives of crows everywhere.
    • Sherry
      Participant
      Chirps: 6
      I was surprised that they were able to take track of individual crows for up to two decades, that they understood the family ties between crows and that they could find family members still flocking together (such as sisters two years apart).
    • janine
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      I am very surprised at how long they live and at their changing eye color.
    • Mary
      Participant
      Chirps: 10
      I was also surprised at how long they can live and that you can still recognize them when they have lost all their Id tags. I also wonder if the wing tags are annoying. I was also wondering when researchers would start using some kind of broadcasting tag since miniaturization has gotten so good. And I was wondering what kind of camera the researchers have that can now catch birds on the fly.
      • Chris
        Participant
        Chirps: 13
        The idea of using a smaller digital device on the crows seems like a better idea than the unwieldly big tags; then the crows could be identified from longer distances, and perhaps more accurately.
    • Sean
      Participant
      Chirps: 1
      I was surprised to learn how long crows can live.
    • DLadetto
      Participant
      Chirps: 6
      I was surprised that some can live so long that their leg bands fall or wear off.