Hooded Crow

Hooded Crow Azerbaijan

Baku, Azerbaijan

A typical covid, the hooded crow is a common resident throughout eastern Europe, Western Asia and the Middle East. They have adapted to a range of habitats including, moorland, woodland, coastal cliffs, inshore islands, estuaries, moorland , urban parks and gardens and cultivated areas.The IUCN Red List estimates the combined population fo hooded crows and common crows at 14 to 34 million in Europe alone. The two species are spread over an estimated 10 million square kilometres worldwide.

Feeding

The hooded crow is an omnivore  eating nuts, fruit, seeds, scraps, insects, earthworms, amphibians, eggs, small mammals and birds and carrion. It will carry molluscs and crabs to a sufficient height to break their shells  when dropped. On sea cliffs. absent  guillemot, cormorant and kittiwake parents return to their nests to discover their eggs taken by hooded crows. Crows are scavengers and gather where humans deposit their household waste.  Hooded crows will also harass raptors and foxes to access their kills.

Breeding

The hooded crow builds a bulky nest made out of sticks in a tall tree, a cliff edge or an old building and even occasionally close to the ground. Four to six blue eggs with brown speckles are incubated by the female alone while the male brings her food. The female remains to brood the chicks while the male continues to bring food for the entire family.

Wildfile Specials
  • In Finland, this clever bird has been seen pulling in fishing lines left in holes in the ice and stealing the catch.
  • Hooded crows will  slip down puffin burrows to steal eggs while parents are away fishing.
  • The  hooded crow hides food such as nuts and meat, for instance, under bushes or tree roots or in gutters, for later use. Other hooded crows will watch and wait until the hoarder departs before stealing his cache.
  • Hooded crows sometimes hunt in groups to coordinate kills that have included ducklings.
  • A group of crows is called a murder. Why? They are scavengers and associated with death and the macabre.
  • The hooded crow eats game bird eggs and chicks and is the enemy of farmers and gamekeepers. In County Cork, Ireland, over 23,000 hooded crows were shot in two seasons in the early 1980s.
  • In the Faroe Islands, according to folklore, a maiden who wanted to know her future should go out on candelmas morning and throw a stone, then a bone, then a clump of turf at a hooded crow. if it flew over the sea, her husband would be a foreigner; if it landed on a farm or house, she would marry a local man; but if it stayed put, she would remain unmarried. 
  • In 2014 while Pope Francis watched children release two peace doves at the Vatican City, one of them was attacked in mid-air by a hooded crow.