>Hi Tweeters --
>
>I just got back from rural Pennsylvania, and was startled by the variety
>of crow voices there. Many of the crows sounded like they'd inhaled
>helium. The National Geographic guide puts the range of fish crows just
>up into SE Pennsylvania (where I was) and says they are primarily
>distinguished from their american crow cousins by voice, but warns that
>they also sound a lot like juvenile american crows. Size was never a
>useful differentiator because I never saw two with different voices
>sitting side by side. The habitat was rural farmland/woodland mix. I
>tend to think the high voiced crows were probably juvenile americans,
>mostly because I've never knowingly seen a fish crow. Are there any
>really good ways to differentiate between juvenile american crows and
>fish crows?
>
>Katie Sauter
>sauter at u.washington.edu

Katie, you *can* tell fish crows from sometimes-similar-sounding juvenile
American crows by voice, but I can't remember exactly the difference. I
remember all fish crows as typically sounding the same, a nasal 'kah' (as
if they all grew up in Maine), while Americans are more variable. Of course
eastern American crow *adults* have quite different voices than our crows
in western Washington, which have strong elements of northwestern crow-type
voices. From what I know of fish crows in the northern parts of their
range, they are usually along rivers, or at least near water; "rural
farmland/woodland" is definitely American crow habitat. Not that I can say
what kinds of crows you actually heard . . .


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416