Crow behavior in spring. Raven bird. Description and lifestyle of a raven. The habits of the gray crow
The life of crows is very interesting and eventful, watching them is a pleasure. These birds are found in any forests. In addition, crows are common inhabitants of settlements. You can meet them in small villages, and even in big cities.
The most common gray crow. In terms of size, a crow is larger than a jackdaw or a rook, but, practically, it is half the size of a crow. The body of the gray crow is ash gray, and the head, wings, tail, beak, legs, front of the throat are blue-black. Crow nests are very similar to rooks. Usually they arrange them in the forks of a thick tree trunk, but sometimes the crow's nest can be seen in city parks or gardens. Some crows can nest even on the eaves of tall buildings.
Very often, children are interested in where crows live in winter. After observing these birds, scientists found out that crows make regular flights in spring and autumn. In autumn, they fly to more southern regions, and return in spring. So, for example, ravens from the Moscow region fly away to Kharkov or Kyiv, and Arkhangelsk ravens settle in the Moscow region. Therefore, the crows that we meet in winter are not at all the ones that originally built their nests here and raised their chicks, but those that flew in from places with more severe frosts. However, only young crows fly. In the spring, the old ones fly away from human habitation, and in the winter they return again and join the flocks of newly arrived young crows and jackdaws.
In terms of the breadth of distribution and the ability to adapt to various conditions of existence, the common raven has no equal. Its huge range covers almost the entire northern hemisphere - with the exception of the deserts of Central Asia, where it is replaced by a smaller brother - the desert raven. In Russia, the common raven nests everywhere: it gets along in the arctic tundra, and in the deaf taiga, and in the oak forests of the middle zone, and in the mountain forests of the Caucasus.
The raven is a large bird with clearly marked features of a scavenger and a predator. In the Far North, the favorite habitats of the crow are confined to the sheer cliffs of the coasts of the seas of the Arctic Ocean. Crows often settle here near bird colonies, where they find abundant food in the form of the corpses of dead birds, chicks, and abandoned eggs. Often they hunt and robbery in the nests. Ravens adore seafood and regularly survey the littoral in search of mollusks, crustaceans, dead fish, dead seals thrown out by the surf. If there is little food for them by the sea, crows go hunting in the tundra, where they hunt lemmings, young long-tailed gophers, chicks of white partridges, geese and ducks. In the forest zone, the basis of the diet of the common raven in all seasons, and especially in winter, is carrion, which is consumed regardless of its origin, storage time and degree of freezing. Especially rich prey goes to crows from hunters, who leave behind a lot of doomed wounded animals. In summer, insects, berries, nuts, and also game, which occasionally can be obtained, serve as an addition to the diet.
The desert raven is a tireless killer of ground squirrels, gerbils, jerboas, hamsters and other small rodents. On occasion, he catches lizards, small snakes, eats young turtles, pecking at their soft shells, and various insects. This raven feeds on carrion only occasionally.
A rare story about ravens does not touch on their passion for collecting bird eggs and their “tender” attachment to other people's chicks. The search for nests with the appropriate content is indeed a favorite pastime of the crows. It helps them pass the time and provides a significant increase in their diet. However, one should not see crows as inveterate pragmatists: they also sometimes destroy nests without contents. But this is already solely out of "love for art", to maintain fitness and natural curiosity.
Crows are jack-of-all-trades: robbers, predators, scavengers, and scavengers. They prefer to live where they can find a use for all their skills. Three varieties of crows live in Russia: to the west of the Yenisei, the well-known gray crow, to the east - the black crow known to many Siberians, and in Primorye and Sakhalin, the little-known large-billed crow joins the black one. Differences in color between distinctly gray and completely black crows are striking from afar, but this does not at all prevent them from intermarrying and safely breeding viable offspring. But black and big-billed crows, black as coal, and similar to each other, like twins, do not enter into such marriages.
The original habitats of all crows are river valleys and lake basins with rich vegetation, a bizarre mosaic of landscapes, an abundance of fish, mollusks, water birds and rodents. Among this diversity, enterprising crows feel great: they collect dead fish, pick bivalve shells, rob nests, hunt voles, and they will never fly past carrion.
- When building a nest, the desert raven is often content with a saxaul bush a little over a meter high, if it finds it strong enough to withstand a heap of branches 40 cm high and 35 cm in diameter.
- Common crows nest on tall trees and impregnable cliffs: in rocky niches or on cornices under ledges hanging over them from above. The nest is a very massive, thick platform of twigs and branches with a deep tray in the middle and a warm lining of dry grass and wool.
- The male and female common raven are attached to each other and to their site throughout their lives. A pair from a pair nest at a distance of at least 3-5 km and guard their sites in the most zealous way.
- In former times, among the northern peoples - the Chukchi, Evenks - it was customary to leave the dead in open coffins in the air. Ravens completed the funeral rite and were highly respected by the local population, which gave this bird one of the most prominent places in its myth-making.
- Common raven chicks are easily tamed. By the ability to establish communication with people, comprehension, richness of mental capabilities and level of intelligence, crows are on a par with dogs.
- In cities, neighboring crow nests are often separated by only 25-30 m, but under natural conditions, pairs of crows protect vast nesting territories and settle no closer than a few hundred meters from each other.
- In the nesting time of the crow, the crow is the main enemy. In places with a high nesting density of gray crows, the extermination of each other's eggs by them takes on a mass character and reaches 65%. When laying 5-6 eggs, 3-4 older chicks fly out of the nest, and the younger ones almost never have a chance of survival. They hopelessly lose in the competition for food, weaken, and in the end the elders trample them.
- In winter, gray crows spend the night in large flocks in the trees in the city center, where it is always two or three degrees warmer than in the suburbs. In the morning they rush to feed. Local birds fly around the city to their sites, inhabited since the summer, and spend the day here, rummaging through dustbins. Crows wintering in the city from the northern regions prefer suburban garbage dumps.
Crow
The raven is the largest member of the crow family (Corvidae). Although it is similar in color to the black crow I, it is much larger. In addition, he has a wedge-shaped tail, while the crow's tail is clipped.
The crow is distributed almost throughout the Northern Hemisphere: in Europe and Asia, except for Southeast, in North Africa and North America. Inhabits tundra, forests, steppes, deserts, mountains. The bird leads both a sedentary and nomadic lifestyle. And yet, the raven is a rare bird, although in recent years its population has begun to increase, flocks from a few individuals to dozens of birds during non-breeding time are found in city dumps, in the suburbs and near livestock complexes. Raven is an omnivorous bird. His main food is carrion, which he collects in landfills, the corpses of wild animals. It also eats rodents, eggs and chicks, fish, various invertebrates. Of the feed of plant origin, he prefers cereals, less likes the fruits and seeds of other plants.
In the clay and sandy deserts of North Africa, Arabia, Western and Central Asia, the desert raven (C. ruficollis) lives. It differs from the ordinary one by a chocolate-brown shade of the oper-reiiya of the head, neck, back and goiter. During nesting time, this crow settles on individual bushes and trees, in oasis areas and saxaul forests.
Crow
Crows are black and grey. The most common species in Europe is the black crow, which would be more correctly called the vulture crow. Birds living east of the Elbe are distinguished by their gray back and abdomen; this is a different species - the gray crow (Corvus comix). Some ornithologists consider them one species. These birds live alone or in pairs, but sometimes gather in large flocks in winter. Hundreds and even thousands of crows can be seen in constantly changing places of lodging for the night, and when the birds rise into the air, the sky turns black.
The gray crow in appearance resembles a crow, but smaller than it. She got her name for the predominance of gray in her plumage, only the head, throat, wings and tail remain black.
In addition to the gray and black crows known to us, there are also large-billed (C. macrorhynchos), Indian brownies (C. splendens), Hawaiian (C. tropicus), Cuban (C. nosicus), and Jamaican (C.jamaicusis) crows.
The Hawaiian crow is the rarest among the crows. It was distributed along the wooded slopes of the mountainous regions of the Hawaiian Islands and on the avalanche flows of the largest volcano on the islands, Mauna Loa, at an altitude of 300 to 2500 m above sea level.
| Black Crow |
A relative of the crow, that is, a representative of the crow family, is also the rook (C. Jrugilegus), which is easy to distinguish by the white base of the beak.
It nests in colonies along with relatives. Previously, this bird was quite widespread in Central Europe. Along with the already existing colonies, the rooks arranged new ones, even in cities, and if they were not interfered with, they returned to their usual places from year to year, correcting nests damaged during the winter and building new ones. As a result, these colonies numbered hundreds of nests. However, rooks have long been considered a harmful bird and their nests have been destroyed, so now their numbers have noticeably decreased. In addition, now they do not find enough food for themselves.
The jackdaw, jay, magpie and nutcracker also belong to the crows.
Surprisingly, but ravens belong to the suborder of songbirds. However, this may seem strange only at first glance. In fact, ravens have a well-developed voice. True, for the sake of justice, it should be noted that urban residents are better aware of the rude repeated "kar-r", which sometimes does not allow you to sleep in the morning, than singing, which you hear infrequently. But, believe me, it is very diverse, the crow builds whistles, trills and even imitates the voices of other birds.
Black crow (C. sorone)
| Value | Body length 47cm |
| signs | black plumage, depending on the lighting with different reflections; black beak, black beak base; the same coloration in both sexes |
| Nutrition | Small animals, chicks, carrion, parts of plants, seeds, also offal |
| reproduction | Stick nests high in the trees; clutch of 4-6 light blue or greenish eggs with gray and brown speckles; start of laying: end of March - beginning of April, one brood per year |
| habitats | Open areas, forests and parks; settled bird, except for the time of incubation of chicks; flies over a certain area in search of food; widespread in Europe and Asia |
Gray and black crows are close relatives of the same family. Black is much larger than gray, stronger than it. Black at a distance crow can be confused with a young rook. in winter crows like magpies and jackdaws rush to cities closer to man, where you can always find food.
Crow- the bird is bold and quick-witted, cautious and extremely viable. Crow almost omnivorous, but prefers live prey that it can overpower. In the spring, she often ruins the laying of eggs of various birds, hunts for voles, monthly hares. It can kill an adult chicken, a pigeon, if possible, they finish off wounded animals, sometimes they attack animals larger than themselves, especially sick ones.
But at the same time, one must not forget that crow is an excellent orderly, destroying carrion, clearing landfills of garbage. The ingenuity of the crow is amazing, it is not inferior to the wolf, and perhaps even surpasses it. Can outsmart one or more crow, but the whole tribe is perhaps impossible. After all, personal mistakes quickly become common property in the pack.
There are not many signals in everyday crow language. In a quiet environment crows quite silent, especially in winter. Their croaking does not portend a change in the weather, but if they raise a cry, it means that they have noticed something unusual, such as a cat or an owl. They croak for hours until they scream enough.
crows they are able to reproduce many sounds and in this they are superior to talking parrots. For one year crow can be trained speak 40 words. It was noticed how crow distracted the cat with a meow. From the first listening, she immaculately repeated the woodpecker's drum roll so that the woodpecker came into obvious confusion. crows they know how to "invent", use all sorts of twigs to extract food from hard-to-reach places.
They are good at taking food from cats and dogs. They act together, making good use of psychological moments. Crow perfectly distinguishes a man with a gun from a man walking with an ordinary stick. Many cases were recorded by observant people and described in their stories.
A curious phenomenon is the winter roosting of the crows, for which they gather shortly before sunset. At first it is a huge gathering of birds somewhere in large wastelands, on river ice and other open areas. Thousands of rooks and jackdaws also gather at these gatherings. Huge black spots clearly stand out on the snow, where more and more new birds fly. There are no screams, no quarrels, and for a moment all movement stops altogether, everyone sits silently waiting for some signal.
And the twilight is getting thicker, finally, almost nothing can be seen, when suddenly the whole mass of birds rises into the air at once, and like a black river flows through the dark sky into a park, a square or a cemetery, into a grove and rustle, rustle the wings of this superflock! Each bird quickly finds its place on the branches of oaks, poplars, maples, and as if huge black hats grow on these trees. From time to time, a displeased voice is heard, but quickly calms down, and this means that everyone has taken their comfortable place, ready in case of alarm to take off with everyone else.
In addition to these birds that spend the night on trees, there are those who prefer to spend the night on the upper floors of ancient buildings, on the eaves and roofs of houses. As soon as the morning dawns, the birds instantly scatter through the streets, through tall trees, and not a single crow will appear at the place of spending the night before dark. Every winter, every night spend crows only in one place. And if it is necessary to expel the whole flock from the “sleeping place”, then this is possible with the greatest difficulty, even shooting does not scare these birds very much.
Jackdaws and rooks usually behave as they please, they do not hide the place of their overnight stays. But in the pack crow they obey the rules and discipline of these birds and fly with them.
crows they begin the winter day with a search for food, and when they are satisfied, the extra pieces of food are hidden under the roof slate, under the snow, and foliage. Diligently covering the treasured treasure, crow never forget this place. Even after a heavy snowfall, after a night of powder that hid all traces, a crow usually takes out what was hidden the first time. And she doesn’t make mistakes: if she didn’t find it, then the dogs stole it or peeped crow dragged away.
With the advent of spring, crows migrate to the forests, but some of them remain in the city, nesting in old parks and cemeteries. crows they build a rough nest from thick branches, but inside they line it with tow, animal hair, found with some kind of rags. At the end of March, five to seven bluish-green eggs with dark brown spots already lie in the nest.
When crow sits on a nest, a raven flies over it, flying up and rushing down and taking off again. And at the same time, the raven screams very melodiously, it’s not at all a nasal croak, but something special, gentle. Married pairs of crows are very constant. Even in winter, they do not part.
In the spring, at dusk, crows catch May-bearers on the fly. And with the onset of summer, when the little fish rises to the surface of the water, crows deftly grab half-asleep fry. Crows are agile, quick-witted and… vindictive. They often take revenge even on people, in their own way, of course, but fearlessly and inventively.
While still a schoolgirl, I went skiing on a high hill behind the stadium. My skis were attached directly to the felt boots, there was no one nearby. I climbed to the top of the mountain and two crows. I whistled to them, and my whistle was inept, now I think that it looked like a mouse squeak. A whole flock of crows suddenly gathered over my head! I was so frightened that I quickly slid down the mountain, my skis flew off my boots and went down faster than me. The crows scattered, I rode a little more and went home, but I did not forget that incident. It was very scary somehow: I'm alone and a big flock crow!
Mankind sometimes tries to downsize crow, but it was noticed that birds at the same time increase their reproduction several times. The more they are destroyed, the more numerous the flock becomes. This simple common crow full of unsolved secrets, she is pretty, smart and deserves respect!
Lives in Europe - east of the river. Elbe and in Western Siberia. In the west of Europe and in the river basin. Yenisei, it meets with a related species - the black crow (C. corone), which also occupies a large area. In the meeting places of these forms of crows, there is a wide band of hybrid populations.
Crows are the most familiar species of the family, since their large concentrations are characteristic of the cities of central Russia. In Moscow, for example, the wintering population of gray crows has up to 1 million individuals. In summer, however, the crows are three times smaller. This is due to the fact that wintering birds fly away to nesting sites, which can be quite far away. My colleagues and I decided to find out where the crows that winter in Moscow nest. For this it was necessary to ring them. We used three traps of the "Norwegian" type, which were installed in different parts of the zoo. The fact is that the zoo turned out to be a very attractive place for crows. Here the birds could have a hearty meal, have a good rest on tall trees
The winter catch was simply excellent. It was possible to catch from 10 to 100 individuals per day. All of them were measured, weighed, tried to determine their sex and age, put an aluminum ring on their leg and let go. And the ringing report was submitted to the Bird Ringing Center of the Academy of Sciences. In total, several thousand crows were ringed. Some time later, the Ringing Center began to receive reports of encounters with ringed ravens. A lot of data came from the Moscow and Tver regions, but several rings even returned from the Komi Republic. Having marked the return points on the map, we were convinced that the gray crows have rather long seasonal migrations - up to 1500 km one way. The direction of spring migrations is northeast. The nesting sites of the studied population are located on a vast territory in the form of an ellipse, one end of which rests against Moscow, and the other end against Syktyvkar.
Our colleagues from Tula ringed the crows during nesting. As a result of this work, it turned out that birds nesting in central Russia fly away to winter to the south and south-west, reaching in their routes even the Nikolaev and Odessa regions of Ukraine, as well as the environs of Minsk. This is how one population replaces another during different seasons of the year. People still have the impression that crows are sedentary birds - both in summer and winter they are next to us. But thanks to the ringing method, it was possible to find out the truth. Gray crows reach puberty by the age of three, at which time they find a faithful companion and take a fancy to the nesting territory. Adults are less nomadic than young birds. Sometimes such a pair lingers in its territory during a steep year.
In keeping a house, crows are very interesting birds. Especially those of them that came to man as chicks. A crow can imprint a person in her mind as an individual of her own species and try to pair with him. In this case, she will show maximum attention to the owner. I know of a case where a female gray crow was "paired" with a dog of the Doberman Pinscher breed. The bird responded to the voice of the dog. Having flown out into the street, the crow each time allowed herself to be taken in hand, flying to the barking of the dog. The Doberman also became attached to the crow and periodically licked it, and she allowed it to be done with joy.
A great lover of birds, I.V. Chernyshova, had several crows, all together they occupied a separate room in the apartment. They got to the mistress in different ways, but mostly wounded and sick. How different were they! The owners loved them like their children. Otherwise it was impossible.
Since crows are omnivorous birds, their homemade diet consists of pieces of meat, fish or minced meat, cottage cheese, various cereals with milk, steamed grains, white bread and other food that can be found in any refrigerator.
The black crow is no different from its gray relative except for the color (pure black). It is also periodically kept at home by bird lovers. It is also found in youth circles, as well as in zoo enclosures. Two black crows lived in the Moscow Zoo for about 2 years, caught here in the "Norwegian" trap. Where they came from in Moscow remains a mystery. After all, the nearest borders of their range are more than a thousand kilometers away from the capital. They were caught in August, during the change of youthful attire to adult, which makes one think about their local origin.
Vladimir Ostapenko. "Birds in your house". Moscow, "Ariadia", 1996
A crow is a bird belonging to the order Passerine, the corvidae family, a genus in about rony ( Corvus).
Previously, in Rus', the crow was called "vra". According to linguists, the name of the bird, most likely, is consonant with the words “soothsayer”, “enemy”, “enemy”.
Crow: description, characteristics and photo. What does a bird look like?
Ravens are the largest representatives of the order of passeriformes. The length of the bird varies between 48-56 cm. The male is larger than the female, the weight of the male is 700-800 grams, the females weigh from 460-550 grams. The length of the wing of the male crow reaches 27-30 cm, in the female individual the wings grow from 25 to 27 cm. Strong wings in most species are distinguished by a pointed shape. The wingspan of a crow is about 1 m.
The appearance of a crow is similar to a rook, but has a more dense physique.
The crow's tail is wedge-shaped, with long tail feathers. The bird's beak is powerful and sharp, conical in shape, in some species it has a characteristic high bend. The legs of the crow are thin and long, with four fingers: 1 is turned back, 3 is forward.
Most species of crows have gray or black plumage, which casts a metallic, purple, violet or green color in the sun. The base of the feather is usually gray, in rare cases white.
The voice of the crow is high, hoarse, sometimes rough and guttural, reminiscent of laughter. The “crow tongue” is very developed, sounds of different tonalities are used during mating games, to announce a general gathering, abuse, threats, and also alarm signals.
How many years do crows live?
The life expectancy of a crow in nature is 15-20 years. In captivity, some crows live up to 35-40 years. The officially documented age of the oldest crow was 59 years old, which is rare.
Where do crows live?
The habitat is quite extensive: the crow bird is found in almost all countries of Europe and Asia, in North America, in North Africa and Australia.
Most crows are sedentary in urban, rural or natural landscapes. Sedentary nomadic species of crows, which live at the northern borders of the range, move to areas with a more benign climate for the winter.
What do crows eat?
Loners by nature, crows are active hunters, sometimes teaming up with their congeners to capture prey or arrange a communal feast. Being scavengers, a flock of crows is able to accompany raptors for a long time, as well as for the sake of their prey or its remains. Crows are omnivorous and eat absolutely everything that, in their opinion, will be edible. The crow's diet includes any insects (,), worms, eggs of other bird species and their chicks, fish, small rodents (and).
All kinds of food waste is the usual and favorite food of the crow, so a large accumulation of these birds is often observed in city dumps. The crow feeds on insect larvae that teem in manure.
In the absence of animal food, the crow eats plants and their seeds, fruits and vegetables.
Types of crows, names and photos
The genus includes several types of crows:
- Black Crow(corvus corone)
It has black plumage, as well as black paws, feet and beak. Therefore, the bird is often confused with the rook. However, the plumage of the black crow has a much greener sheen than that of the rook, and sometimes even a purple sheen. The body length of an adult is 48-52 cm.
The range of the species covers the territory of Western and Central Europe, where the black crow lives together with one of its subspecies - the eastern black crow (lat. Corvus corone orientalis), which lives in East Asia. On the territory of Russia, black crows nest in Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
- Hoodie(Corvus cornix)
According to one of the classifications, the gray crow is separate view, according to another is a subspecies of the black crow. The length of the bird reaches 50 cm with a weight of 460-735 grams. The gray crow differs from the rook in the greater width of the wing and a particularly pronounced inclination of the beak. The body is painted grey. The head, chest, wings and tail of the gray crow are black in color with a slight metallic sheen.
The gray crow lives in Eastern and Central Europe, the Scandinavian countries, Asia Minor and throughout Russia, from the western part to the Kara Sea.
- australian crow(corvus coronoides)
It is the largest of three related species found in Australia. The body length of the crow is 46-53 cm, and its weight is on average 650 g. The black plumage of the crow casts a blue-violet or blue-green sheen. Distinctive feature of all crows living in Australia is a white iris of the eyes and pronounced neck feathers. The throat of young specimens is covered with such rare feathers that pink skin appears between them.
The Australian Crow lives in Sydney and Canberra.
- south australian crow(Corvus mellori)
It is distinguished by completely black plumage, long wings and a thin, strongly curved beak. A medium-sized species, the length of an adult crow is 48-50 cm. According to some scientists, the bird prefers only plant foods.
The South Australian crow lives in the southeast of Australia, as well as on the King and Kangaroo Islands.
- bronze crow(Corvus crassirostris)
It was originally called the vulture crow. Large representatives of the species have a body length of 60-64 cm. The beak of a bronze crow is quite large and exceeds the length of the head. The color of the crow is completely black, with a single white spot on the back of the head. The tail of the crow of this species is characterized by a stepped arrangement of feathers.
The bronze crow lives in the highlands and high plateaus of East Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, as well as Sudan and Somalia.
- white-necked crow(Corvus cryptoleucus)
A typical representative of the genus, distinguished by the white bases of the feathers on the neck. The body length of an adult is 50 cm. This species of crow is common in the southeastern United States and northern Mexico.
- big-billed crow(Corvus macrorhynchos)
The bird has a very large beak. The size of the crow depends on the habitat: representatives of the northern populations are larger than the southern ones, have a large beak and well-developed feathers on the neck. On average, the length of adult crows is 46-59 cm, and the weight reaches 1.3 kg. The body is covered with dark gray feathers. The wings, tail and head of the big-billed crow are black, with a purple or green tint.
The species includes 15 subspecies living in the continental part of Asia and the Russian Far East, as well as inhabiting the islands: the Philippines, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Hokkaido, Yakushima and many others.
- bristly crow(Corvus rhipidurus)
It grows up to 47 cm in length and is very similar to the black crow. However, the bird has a characteristically thickened beak, long wings, shortened tail and very short throat feathers. The type of bristly crows is distinguished by a black glossy color and feathers and paws characteristically shimmering purple-blue. Crow feathers on the back of the head have a white base.
The habitat of this bird species begins in the Middle East, passes through the northern part of the African continent, along the Arabian Peninsula, through Kenya and Sudan to the Sahara desert.
- bangai crow(Corvus unicolor)
The smallest crow of this genus, growing up to only 39 cm in length. The species is characterized by black feathers and a short tail.
The least studied species of crow, found exclusively on the island of Peleng in Indonesia. The species has the status of endangered and, according to scientists, the population today contains from 30 to 200 individuals.
White crows are very rare in nature - the result of a mutation-albinism.
An albino can appear in any species group and will differ from relatives only in white plumage and extreme vulnerability.
How do crows breed?
At the age of 2 years, most species of crows are ready to breed. Ravens are monogamous birds and choose mates for the rest of their lives. The mating games of the male and female crows are distinguished by intricate aerial turns, chases and somersaults. Reproduction of the most common species of these birds occurs in early to mid-spring.
On the left is a female crow, on the right is a male crow
The crow builds its nest in forest parks and squares, their laying takes place in the fork of strong tree branches, on power line supports, cranes, and behind drains. Species living in steppe and semi-desert landscapes arrange nests in crevices of rocks and cliffs. Both future parents usually take part in the construction, painstakingly building a nest from twigs and twigs. The crow's nest does not exceed 0.5 meters in diameter and has a height of 20-30 cm. Sod, clay, and often pieces of wire are used for fastening. The bottom of the nest is lined with feathers, down, dry grass, cotton wool and rags.
Depending on the type of bird, the clutch contains 3-6 or 4-8 light green or bluish eggs with dark spots. The female crow inseparably incubates the clutch for 17-20 days. The male crow feeds his companion and takes care of her throughout the entire time of incubation of eggs.
After 25 days, naked crow chicks are born, which are fed by both parents. Cubs fledge a month after birth.
You should not try to pick up a crow chick that accidentally fell out of the nest. Parents raise a terrible noise, calling relatives with cries, and zealously protect the cub. A flock of crows is attacking a dangerous alien, be it an animal or a person.
At the beginning of summer, the offspring of the crow begins to fly out of the nest, and for the first month remains with their parents, who continue to take care of them. In July, the young finally leave their native nest.
Nevertheless, family ties remain, and sometimes the offspring of past years, instead of creating their own family, help their parents feed and raise their brothers and sisters.
