Thursday, July 26, 2007

Parent Birds

I was outside one day when I heard strange sounds from the street. I ducked under the evergreens that grow in front of the house, quietly, to see what made the noise. It was four large black birds (crows) on the street, making human-like sounds. One of them was picking up something looking like French fries and feeding them to the others. I surmised that the one doing the feeding was the parent, although they were all approximately the same size. The thing that made this so memorable was the cooperation among the birds and the human like sounds they were making. This reminded me of two robins I had seen earlier. They looked to be the same size as eachother, like the crows, but one of them was offering the other one an earth worm.

1 comment:

glorenzow said...

Great blog! I think you are right about the feeding crow being the parent. By the time crows are fledglings (3-4 weeks old), they resemble adults in size and color (which leads people to believe they have never seen a "baby" crow). If you are able to get close enough, you can distinguish the young ones by the less-glossy appearance of their feathers. Young crows also have a pale blue iris which darkens to brown after three or four months. I'd love to hear more of your crow stories!