Jonquele

1. Everyone seems healthy. I've not seen any one-footed crows. (The Great Blue Heron that spends most of his time in the pond next to our beach house on the Fla panhandle is missing a foot, but I suspect an alligator. He has trouble perching in the trees, but otherwise seems able to fish, fly and court females.) Don't know about West Nile. 2. Last fall, there was a quite violent encounter, probably territorial. Here's my account from eBird, "Flying widely separated east to west. Lots of calling and flying to and fro over the entire ridge. Judging from an episode yesterday afternoon, there are rival crows in the area... a squad of “soldiers” in a tight, fast-moving flock came over the hill headed west. Then there was a ferocious hullabaloo about a quarter mile away that gave insight to the term “murder of crows”. The conflict moved to the yard diagonally behind mine with 5-6 crows diving at something. What finally escaped was another crow hotly pursued by the flock and driven all the way to the lake. [.5 mi away]" Another curious episode occurred early this spring. Four crows landed on the driveway where I had dumped the feeders to clean them... lots of sunflower seeds, peanuts and cherries. One bird, which was larger (by a good 10%) and shaggier than the others, was begging to be fed...shaking his wings like a fledgling. Very strange. They stamped their feet at him when he came too close, but they didn't drive him off either. As I recall, he didn't seem to understand how to gather and eat for himself. (I had a cowbird chick last summer who acted the same way, while the entire summer flock of 20 + birds chowed down around him.) The crows vacuumed up the peanuts and then left, as a group.

It seems to work for them or they would have abandoned it. I think they probably run into the same issue that some human and primate societies run into of having to wait for a territory.... the old "you can't get married until you have a farm"---it's fine as long as space opens up within a year or two of maturity, but longer than that and "cheating" is liable to start. On the other hand, I have a pair of cardinals determined to breed in a fully populated landscape... they have chosen a terrible nest site in spite of my discouraging them by repeatedly removing their nest and sitting under the shrub. I'm not giving great odds on anyone surviving.

1. The largest group of crows that I noted in eBird was 30 last Oct in Fort Worth. I had very few observations that exceeded 10 all year long. 2. We frequently have large flocks of vultures, enormous gathering of grackles/blackbirds/starlings (especially in fall & winter), cattle egrets. I saw a huge flock of migrating waterbirds (1000's) attacked by a pair of hawks over Laguna Madre (Corpus Christi) at Christmas 2 years ago. The biggest flock surprise to me this past March was a flock of 100+ American Robins in my neighbors' trees, and my holly hedge, at the same time 200+ Cedar Waxwings occupied the remaining trees on either side of my yard. The trees were just smothered in birds and the noise was unbelievable. I didn't know that Robins flocked up in winter. The robins stayed in the area for several days before moving on. There were very few holly berries left by the time everyone left. Some robins even tried to play hummingbird to reach berries on the sides of the hedge.

1. I would have to point out that one of my cats is a formidable huntress. (She is dying to catch a crow, although they are larger than she is.) But the 4 ft rat snake, the squirrels and raccoons, not to mention the raptors and owls and cowbirds all have better opportunities to go after nestlings. The experienced members of the passerine flock nest in other yards. The crows do try it on though. The mockingbirds kick up an enormous racket when they or the blue jays show up... their nest is high in a hackberry tree. 2. I have never spotted a nest. The resident flock has a lot of hillside to choose from. The crows visit when I dump out feeders on the driveway or toss out stale bread, chips or fruit. They always go after the peanuts first, stuffing in as many as they can manage. The sunflower seeds must be stepped on while they are hammered. Then they have to practically lie their heads down on the pavement to extract the seeds. Usually, they come alone or with 1-3 friends. 3. There are only crows where I live. The ravens are a couple hundred miles west. 4. The crows and bluejays make a terrific fuss when there are predators around, including me. They seem to run regular patrols around the territory. I hear them calling from one side of the peninsula to the other. I am told that they don't like to share space with grackles. There are certainly no grackles, (and not many blackbirds or starlings) on the ridge and peninsula where I live, but I have seen them foraging side by side at a nearby golf course, so that may just be hearsay. Not having grackles leaves more food for everyone else. Anything that eats grasshoppers helps the local herbivores.