Hooded Crow (Lesbos #21) by GiMi53

Photography • Animals • posted on Oct 10, 2011

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Description

The Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix) (sometimes called Hoodiecrow) is a Eurasian bird species in the crow genus. Widely distributed, it is also known locally as Scotch Crow, Danish Crow, and Corbie or Grey Crow in Ireland, which is what its Welsh name, Brân Lwyd, translates as. Found across Northern, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East, it is an ashy grey bird with black head, throat, wings, tail and thigh feathers, as well as a black bill, eyes and feet. Like other corvids it is an omnivorous and opportunistic forager and feeder. It is so similar in morphology and habits to the Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) that for many years they were considered by most authorities to be merely geographical races of one species. The fact that hybridization was observed where their ranges overlapped added weight to this view. However, since 2002, the Hooded Crow has been elevated to full species status after closer observation; the hybridisation was less than expected and hybrids had decreased vigour. La Corneille mantelée (Corvus cornix) est une espèce de passereau de la famille des Corvidae. La corneille mantelée est si proche en morphologie et en comportement de la corneille noire que certains les considèrent comme deux variantes géographiques d'une même espèce. Toutefois, depuis 2002, des travaux sur leurs ADN respectifs ont montré que les deux espèces devaient être distinguées. Là où les deux espèces cohabitent, elles sont interfécondes, cependant les hybrides sont moins adaptés que leurs congénères de lignée pure : c'est une des raisons qui ont amené à classifier ces corneilles en deux espèces. Thank you very much for your comments on my previous upload:

" Flamingos over Kalloni Bay (Lesbos #20)"

Comments (11)

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jayfar

1:46PM | Mon, 10 October 2011

A great shot and info Michel.

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ia-du-lin

3:38PM | Mon, 10 October 2011

fantastic pov, great details, excellent shot

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PatGoltz

3:48PM | Mon, 10 October 2011

Fascinating species, excellent picture. Hybridization that leads to less hardy animals is evidence of lost genetic information. People are too quick to separate something into two species. I've just been embroiled in a controversy of this nature over a different species.

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Chipka

4:28PM | Mon, 10 October 2011

I love hooded crows. Unfortunately, we don't get them in Chicago, but there's a colony of them in Moscow that serve as something of a tourist attraction; they're smart and have a habit of cracking nuts by dropping them down drain-pipes, retrieving them once they've rolled out onto the ground, and repeating the process until the outer shells of the nuts are damaged enough for the bird in question to get at the tasty bits inside. Apparently, they're found near the Kremlin, which explains a lot...Kremlin birds are distinctive. I've seen a few in the Czech Republic also...they were lively and prone to rather...um...flagrant displays of incomprehensibly humorous behavior, including rumored thievery. Ah, corvids...they're among my favorite bird species. Crows make such good company in general...no matter what ethnicity of crow they may be.

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