Cape crow

Cape crow
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Genus:	Corvus
Species:	C. capensis
Binomial name
Corvus capensis Lichtenstein, MHC, 1823
Audio
Calls recorded in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The Cape crow or black crow (Corvus capensis) is slightly larger (48–50 cm in length) than the carrion crow and is completely black with a slight gloss of purple in its feathers. It also has proportionately longer legs, wings, and tail, and has a much longer, slimmer bill that seems to be adapted for probing into the ground for invertebrates. The head feathers have a coppery-purple gloss and the throat feathers are quite long and fluffed out in some calls and displays.

Distribution and habitat

This species occurs in two large separate regions of the African continent. One form ranges from the Cape at the southern tip of Africa north to southern Angola and across to the east coast of Mozambique. The other population occurs in a large area from South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya in central East Africa. The more northern population is on average slightly smaller than the southern. It inhabits open grassland, moorland, and agricultural areas with some trees or woodland in the vicinity for nesting. It seems to thrive especially in agricultural areas.

Behaviour

Diet

It eats grain and other seeds, and invertebrates, which it digs for with powerful downward stabs of its long bill. It opens maize kernels before they are fully ripe, bulbs and fleshy roots of certain plants, frogs and small reptiles, and fruits and berries. It takes the eggs and chicks of ground-nesting birds and has been known to kill birds up to a pound in weight (especially domestic poultry). It turns over the droppings of herbivorous mammals for insects.

Nesting

Nesting is almost always in trees, usually near the top, but has been known to nest in shrubs infrequently. Usually, three or four eggs are incubated about 18–19 days and hatchlings are fledged by around 38 days. Typically, only three nestlings survive.

Voice

The voice is described as a krrah.....krrah.....krrah or a quicker kah-kah-kah. It also makes very loud, liquid bubbling sounds that carry quite a distance; it also gives throaty chuckles. Some evidence indicates that vocal mimicry is practised, too.

External links

• Black crow = Cape crow - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds

• Cape crow Structured guide to the species in southern Africa

Photo images

• Good profile shot
• Cape crow or black crow
• Cape crow or black crow in ploughed field

Video links

• Cape crow videos on the Internet Bird Collection