Ellen,

You were not entirely wrong when you reported Northwestern Crows
recently in Seattle. The crows in the Seattle area are actually a
hybrid population between Northwestern and American Crows, although
probably tending more toward American Crows. As you go father north in
western Washington, the crows become more and more like Northwesterns.
In the San Juan Islands and in western Whatcom and Skagit Counties, as
best I can tell, the crows appear to be pure Northwesterns. In
southwestern British Columbia (both Vancouver Island and the southern
mainland coast), we have only Northwestern Crows, and American Crows
are virtually unknown.

Many birders in western Washington just throw up their hands, and call
all crows "crow species". The situation certainly needs further study,
but the crows around Seattle definitely are NOT pure American Crows.

I have posted on this subject before on Tweeters, and can repost some
of my earlier messages if anyone is interested.

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops and Delta, BC
contopus at shaw.ca



----- Original Message -----
From: Ellen Granfield <edgranfield at attbi.com>
To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 7:36 PM
Subject: Re: errors


Thanks go to Marv Breece for noting two errors on my very first
Tweeters report. I spotted Glaucous-Winged Gulls, not Glaucous Gulls
and Common Crows, not Northwestern Crows. I have received several
suggestions that I was seeing a Yellow-Rumped Warbler, but the yellow
patch under it's chin was very prominent and aside from the two yellow
patches on it's side it was mostly brown. I'm wondering now if maybe
it was an imateur male Audubon's Warbler.

Ellen Granfield
Seattle
edgranfield at attbi.com