Mike suggested to Yvonne:

> 1. Go to coastal Alaska or northern BC and tick one based on
> unequivical geography.

I'm not sure you'd have to go this far. The equivocal nature of the
status of Northwestern Crow seems to end abruptly at the
Washington-B.C. border. Looking over Christmas count data, most
western Washington sites list either American Crow or crow sp., with
just a couple, Port Townsend and San Juan Is., if I remember right,
counting Northwestern Crows. North of the border, they're nearly all
counted as Northwesterns along the coast, with the presence of
Americans being noteworthy. No such thing as a "crow, sp."

Here in Olympia, I can't detect differences in the local crows. Up in
Skagit County, I can generally differentiate between the smaller
beach-foraging birds and the larger inland versions, but I'd probably
list them all as "crow, sp." on a count. Too many in-betweens.

Do Oregonians make more of a distinction? I think Evanich's
bird-finding guide mentions the Columbia jetty area as an area where
Northwesterns can be found. Wow. I'd be hard-pressed to make that
call anywhere south of the Strait o' Juan de Fuca.

If I remember right, hasn't WOS taken an official stance on the
non-species-status of NW Crow?

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
kraig at wln.com