Subject: crows
Date: Jan 4 10:57:11 1999
From: Jerry Tangren - tangren at wsu.edu


I've posted this before, but I'll repeat it. The crow situation
in the Pacific Northwest (apologies to BC birders for the
geographically inaccurate term) can't be called simply dynamic,
because it has shown profound changes in the 90's alone. Rather
valuable data are being lost every day while we discuss which
names to check off on our lists as if it doesn't change.

I speak for the Wenatchee area, but I believe the changes are
related to those in the Puget Sound area. The continuous distribution
of crows across the passes tells me that. For the Wenatchee area alone
the numbers are dramatic. In the 80's, crows
were mostly a summer bird in the riparian areas. We did get an occasional
bird on the CBC. Birds moving through in the fall seemed large in
comparison to the summer birds.

Now in the 90's, crows are a year-round resident of town. Furthermore, I
feel these crows are a larger race then formerly occurred in summer alone.
One race has replaced another.

Therefore, there is no static answer to the question. What was true this
year won't be true next year.

--Jerry <tangren at wsu.edu>
Wenatchee WA

-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Jack Bowling
Sent: Monday, January 04, 1999 1:14 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: TWEETERS digest 1628


On Sun, Tyler wrote:

>>Tweeters -
>>
>>I just have to ask. All the crows I see flying over my house by the
>hundreds
>>each afternoon are . . .? Are they American or Northwestern? I've been
>>entering them into my Birder's Diary as American and if they aren't
>American,
>>I'd sure like to change what I've entered.

To which Nigel answered:

>I'm sure several more qualified people will answer this, but here's a
start.
>
>Almost all the birders I know around here have given up trying to
>distinguish American (AC) and Northwestern (NC) Crows because the local
>subspecies of American Crow is smaller than most, so that they are
>essentially indistinguishable in the field. Also, none of the reported
>fieldmarks seem to work reliably:-- good luck trying to separate them by
>voice, for example. <<snip>>

I must admit to being both amused and befudled whenever this topic comes up
every now and then on this list. I grew up surrounded by NW Crows south of
Vancouver, BC. For the past 16 years, I have lived in the interior of BC
surrounded by Am Crows. I have absolutely no trouble distinguishing between
the two species whenever I travel down to the coast. The little coastal
runts
just look like they would never be able to hold their own against an
interior
bird in a blind alley. And they *do* talk a different strain of crow talk
than the inland birds.

IMO, there are two clear species but the Puget Lowland Tweetsters'
perspectives are clouded by being surrounded by a dimensionally smaller
population of Am Crow.

- Jack
---------------------------
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca