> Peggi,
>
> A group of crows is called a "murder". Wonder why?
>
>. Bruce Helmboldt

That reminded me of my crow story, observed before I resubscribed to
tweeters. I was meaning to post it but kept forgetting.

Right about the time the air began to vibrate with the squawking of
juvenile starlings, I was at University Village in Seattle and heard a
tremendous screeching. I looked over at an adjacent parking lot and saw a
crow pecking at a just-fledged starling. The starling was on its back, and
every time the crow pecked, the starling would peck back, halting the crow
in mid-peck. It was an impressive defense but, predictable, eventually
ineffective. Every time the starling would get up and scramble away a few
feet, it would give the crow an opportunity to get in a peck, stopping it
again.

At this point, a couple of guys came out to their truck and shooed the crow
away, presumably sympathetic to the baby bird. The starling ran under a
photinia hedge. As soon as the truck pulled away, the crow was right back
at that hedge, working along it until it saw the starling, which it chased
into the open again. By that time, several other crows had assembled and
were watching. I contemplated my own actions but finally decided to let
nature take it's course (I might have made a different decision if the
juvenile had been another species). Last I saw, as I walked away, the crow
delivered a mighty peck to the starling that probably killed it. If I
hadn't been in a hurry at the moment, I would have been stayed to learn
whether the starling disappeared in one gulp or was taken apart, and
whether it was shared with any of the closely attendant crows.

At that point I really began to wonder what percentage of the small birds
in our big cities are actually able to fledge young. It would be
interesting to get a report from anyone who observed fledglings in their
yard (and, of course, what species they were). So far this year, besides
crows I've seen fledged band-tailed pigeons, starlings, house sparrows,
house finches, b-c chickadees, r-b nuthatches, and one robin (last year
there was a yardful of them). Note 4 of the 7 are hole nesters, immune to
both crow predation (well, mostly) and cowbird parasitism. There's no
question that hole nesters have the advantage nowadays.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416