Hoodie – all the ordinary and familiar bird. From other related species is easily distinguished by two-tone color. Head, throat, wings and tail are black, and the rest of the plumage gray. The bird is quite large: body length 45-51 cm, weight 500-700 g.
Hoodie – a thriving, year by year they are becoming more. In this regard, and changing their habits. First of almost most every spring crows build a new nest. Now many nests are used for several years. And a pair of couples, especially in cities, began to nest much closer.
Signs of mating behavior of crows show in February. Males occupy nesting sites, often fly to the same tree and sit there on top of it. But in the gray cloudy days sometimes notice how Raven reason climbs into the old nest and did not get out.
To thaw poultry venture spring games in the air, chasing each other, and, as in aerial combat, show of aerobatics, swooping down sharply or abruptly going into a tailspin. And then suddenly one of the crows begins to play with a bone – raises her legs high above the ground, knocks you down and tries to pick up on the fly.
Breeding hooded crows
The third decade of March the crows begin to repair old and build new nests. On a pre-selected male segment, the female finds a suitable fork tube in the upper part of the crown, at least in the direction from the trunk on a thick bough. Start of construction – the most difficult moment. Frequently brought and lay in the crotch of a branch is not kept in it, and while the bird flies to the next one, falls down. This can be repeated several times. But on the first branch formed of the second, then another. Now the branches interlocked with each other, not fall down.
Since then, the work on the building the nest is faster. The ravens continue to climb trees and look for dry branches. Noticing a suitable bird is missing its beak at the base and tries to break off or loosen, and if it succeeds, pulling the beak in the nest. At the end of March you can see the Raven hanging in the yards and gardens and collecting hemp, bark, scraps of wool and even small cloth to line the nest. Approximately 10 days after the start of construction the nest is ready.
In early April, passing by a tree, suddenly I notice sticking out of the nest black crow’s tail. This means that in the nest there were already at least 3 eggs and the female hatching their villages. All the crows happen in the clutch of 4-7 eggs. They are greenish or grayish-blue color with dark brownish-grey spots and stains. The amount of eggs 41,35×29,2 mm, weight 28,2 g. the Female incubates alone while the male brings her food and guards the nest. When 17 days of incubation in the nest the Chicks hatch, the female makes no nest broken half shells of eggs. Anyway, I never found lying to the side of the nests of corvids halves of the shells from their eggs. But under the nests sometimes seen pieces of the badly damaged shell.
Traces of a grey crow
Raven leaves traces of their feet everywhere and at any time of the year. In the summer they can be seen on the shore of any body of water, or even about puddles, a winter snow in each village or urban yard. By the way, close to human habitation to see traces of crows is much easier than away from him.
Traces the Raven is easily distinguished from the traces of other corvids, except for rook. And the crow, and the rook print sizes so similar that the difference is very difficult. And only a trained eye or test measurements of the individual elements of a print will help you understand whose in front of us the trail, rooks or crows. For the same length of the sole, measured from the end of the claw of the middle toe to end of claw back, you notice that the rook claws on these fingers are longer than the crow, the very same sole without the claws shorter, the fingers a little thinner, Central corn, from which depart all the 4 fingers a little already.
Because of this, the imprint of the foot of the rook seems more elegant. And the side toes rook 2-4 mm shorter than the crow. When walking rook shoves a little harder toward the outer finger. Step from the crow an average of slightly wider. Most of the steps are slightly longer than 15 cm, the rook to 15 cm For comparison, the table shows the relative size of the support surface of the feet and toes of birds of the genus for crows.
| Bird | The size of the print, see | Length of toes with claws and claws separately (in brackets), see | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (rear) | 2nd (inner) | 3rd (medium) | 4th (outdoor) | ||
| Raven | 10,5×4 12,5×6 |
4,7 (1,8) | 5,5 (1,1) 4,5 (1) |
6,9 (1,6) 5,8 (1,4) |
5,1 (1) 4,5 (1) |
| Hoodie | Of 8.3 x 4.2 | 3,4 (1,3) | 4,1 (0,9) | 5,0 (1) | 4 (0,9) |
| Rook | 8,3 x 3,8 | 3,6 (1,6) | 3,9 (1,0) | 4.9 (1,2) | 3,5 (0,8) |
The power of a grey crow
The crow is omnivorous bird. Enough to take it apart pellets to see what they are to understand how a wide range of forages. And you can find pellets near prisad, under the pillars, at the top skird some straw, near the remains of relevantnoj vole or in other places of the meal. Pellets are irregularly-oval form.
Pellets of ravens, with different contents and with the bones of wild cherry and particles of oats; b – oats and fine particles of chitin cover beetles (Carabidae); in – wintered berries of cranberry, egg shells, and particles chitinous cover (see large stone – gastrolith); d – coarse chitin of a beetle – a large Bogolub; d – fur and small bones of voles; with the pulp and seeds of cherry
When eating rodents rear end pellets can be refined through long hair. Size pogadac (3,5-4,4) x (1,5-2) see Frequently in one pohadka see fragments of the most different food: chitinous parts of insects, shells of shells, grains of cultivated cereals, shells of bird eggs, seeds of cherry fruit or cherry. Sometimes it consists of homogeneous residues. Spring in the lower reaches of the Volga I have found pellets, consisting of large fragments of large water scavenger beetles in the period of mass flight of these beetles. In the autumn-winter period often consist of pellets of bones and fur of small rodents. In this case they resemble small pellets of birds of prey.
Droppings of a crow, often semi-liquid white BLOB about 3 cm in diameter. Looks almost the same as the litter, rook.
Wherever the crow, and whatever you do, she’s always preoccupied with foraging and enjoy for any occasion. In the spring and early summer, birds are often nests of both small and game birds. Searching for nests in the forest area or the city Park, a crow sits in the crown of the tree and hides there, watching what is happening around.
Noticing ourknowledge in the hollow of a Sparrow or other bird, and she hurries back and starts unceremoniously into the hollow beak. The behavior of the birds finds a nest located on the branches and on the ground. In floodplains and along lakeshores crows often use the services of unwitting fishermen or tourists. Sitting on the top of the tree, they keep a close eye on moving water by boat. Worth, the grebe or coot at the approach of the boat to get off the nest as predators immediately broken up and rush towards him.
In vain coot or moorhen raise disturbing scream. Raven’s already pulling in the beak of the egg. She can steal eggs from nests of cormorants, herons and spoonbills, if breeding colonies will be people and disturbed the birds for a while will leave the nest. But the goose egg was intact when I drove from the nest of a crow, have stayed there quite a long time.
Stolen eggs of the crow takes to a secluded place and rasklepyvajut there, punching in the shell side of a large rounded hole with a fairly smooth edges. On small Islands or spits you can find a lot of such shells with a characteristic hole in the side. It is the remains from drinking black eggs of cormorants, glossy ibises, herons, waders, ducks and coots (eggs latter often predominate).
Drag crows and little birds, on occasion caught small birds or attack the sick or weak wild and domestic birds. I watched a crow sitting on a stone pedestal fountain, watching the bathers in shallow water Sparrow. And when the Sparrow feathers were wet, she slipped places I. not allowing the bird to recover, grabbed it, and brought on former his place, then plucked and ate it. In Moscow the crows often attack the young or sick doves-Cesar and peck them. Sometimes birds work together. In Pechora-Ilych nature reserve a couple of crows attacked the mother and killed, began to pluck it.
Have caught or found dead small birds crows pluck of the small and all large feathers and eat the bird whole, without residue. Large birds, like the pigeon, pluck a small feather from the chest or back and obkladyvajut only the muscles, leaving intact the backbone, the wings and tail. The head is often eaten.
Riding on the feeding of towns and cities, they are often wander on the side of the road and pick up crushed or hit by a car animals, birds, insects. In late autumn, especially in years that are rich in rodents, they fly over the meadows and arable land and prey on small rodents, often voles. At this time they can be seen sitting near the rat burrows.
Here’s the vole popped out of the hole, and Raven immediately rushed to her. A few strokes of the beak, and the dead animal is hanging in the beak of the predator flying away with prey. On the stump, the deck or just on the pile of straw a crow eats the prey, and in place of the meal remain a few scraps of skin, stomach but scraps of entrails of a rodent.
The crow strong and brave. She easily kills a big grey field and can overcome a water rat. Killing a rat, she rips off her skin, stronger than that of gray voles, and turns it inside out and eats away muscle. The skin is in many places broken. But on a more aggressive and strong the grey rat, which kills a Raven easily, hoodie decided not to attack.
If she is lucky enough to find a dead rat she treats her the same way as with water, but only the strong skin of the rat is a little damaged. The crow is a scavenger, but it is difficult to proclivity skin even trapped under the car the cats, not to mention the larger beast. It can bite only in areas of damaged or injured skin. Finding large carrion, magpies and crows make noise, attracting the attention of more powerful predators. And when foxes or dogs will gnaw through the skin of the deceased animal, after them something and get the birds.
In summer, crows eat a lot of insects – beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars butterflies. I once saw a crow, having found a large fat caterpillar of a hawk moth, a long time crumpling it in her mouth and finally swallowed it whole. On the banks of ponds, these birds pick up a drowning fish and deftly grabbed the fish fry. Pulled from the shallow water of the mussels and perlovits and, breaking the shell, eat clams. Catch and eat frogs and toads (the latter eat only the inside). Sometimes they learn and new foods. Twice I saw a crow broke off and was swallowed wholly the fruit of the ash.
