Rosalie

That the nestlings are tagged three different ways. I have not heard of tagging the wings before. It was neat to learn that the birds can be followed for much of their lives, up to 18/19 years. I was really happy to learn that they are studied as individuals.

I live in Southern California in the wild lands and we have both crows and ravens. My neighbor actually has complained to me about corvids killing nestlings, so I was really happy to learn from the pie chart that crows make up a very small percentage of song bird predators. Next time I see her I will tell her that snakes and squirrels make up 50% of predators, followed by raccoons, ants, mice.. I am not sure yet how to locate a crow's nest. We had a pair of ravens in our canyon this spring and I wasn't able to locate their nest either. I see ravens more frequently than crows in our particular canyon, but I have seen crows in other areas near by, primarily in more populated neighborhoods in backyards, trash cans, and flying. I volunteer at our local wildlife hospital and have been fortunate to see both crows and ravens close up. It's more difficult to distinguish them in flight, but close up it's easier to see that the ravens are twice the size and have a more protuberant or "ugly" beak. The crows look like a sleeker, more streamlined, more elegant bird. I've been paying more attention to the differences in their sounds. I love all the gurgly sounds that ravens make. I'm not sure I've been around them enough to notice behavioral differences and I look forward to that. Owls benefit from crows being around because they like to use their nests. Crows are the "neighborhood watch" for other wildlife. They dispense seeds.