Subject: [Tweeters] Crows with white feathers
Date: Jul 27 10:17:45 2012
From: birdmandea at aol.com - birdmandea at aol.com




Greetings to all,
As you may have notice most of the times I post here it is about crows. I watch them every day. I take great care to notice oddities, avian pox, injuries, missing toes, crossed bills and white feathers. A few weeks ago when this group was having it?s discussion on North-West vs. Common crows all I could do is sit back and think. I see differences in those close to the saltwater vs those inland but I couldn?t tell you much more then that. That is why I look at every single crow that crosses my path, I have a lot of questions.
A few years ago I shared a blog I had done about crow and a red tailed hawk both with white feathers I had found near my home.
Crow http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030 at N07/2838703056/

Hawk http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030 at N07/3200732232/

Blog Post http://birdmandea.blogspot.com/2008/05/leucism-or-piebald.html

Afterward a kind member of this group ( sorry to say I lost the email with your name) suggested that the majority of the crows with white feathers were young birds that were nutrient
deprived while in the nest. He further went on to say the that their color would be normal after their first molt. Well that made sense but I am a person that needs to see things for myself. The crows with white feathers I had seen in the past were in the fall and winter. So the hunt was on.
Last week I was sitting below the Eagle nest on Chambers Creek in Steilacoom waiting to see if the young would fly for pictures, a group of six crows drifted in and landed at the edge of the receding tide. One had white on it's wings. As they settled in I could make out that three were recently fledged and three were adults. All three of the young birds were poorly colored two were mostly brown with light white areas while one had far more white on it's wings. As the group searched the mud I realize that this is what I was looking for. Three siblings together all with a color "shortage" and their extended family. Over the past few weeks my local Red Tailed Hawk has been hammering the young crows around the area so that leads me to think that few young crows with white or brown feather even make it to their first molt and that is why they are so hard to find. The mortality rate this year in my neighborhood was shocking, I watched one hawk being mobbed four times in two days as it carried young crows to the nest for it?s one chick. Each time she was escorted by eighty to a hundred very angry crows. On one mobbing a few days later she was forced to drop a young crow but I am pretty sure it was dead.

Here is the group of three crows seen last week.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030 at N07/7656905608/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030 at N07/7656902602/in/photostream/

These crows are just a mile or so down the road from the cross billed crow I found last fall.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030 at N07/7243946986/

I have however in the past found an adult crow with just two white wing feathers.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25348030 at N07/3030210765/

Thanks to all for the insight. I going to go look at the crows now.
Take care
Dea Just