What does a male crow look like? Interesting world of nature: raven and crow. Little crow chicks are so cute that it's hard to resist falling in love instantly.

Corvids have been known to mankind for a long time. And their intelligence amazed our ancestors - it’s not for nothing that these birds present in many myths and legends. Usually crows symbolized wisdom, cunning, memory, they were the creators of the world and its destroyers. Ravens, for their habits and culinary preferences, were often associated with death, they were credited with the ability to escort souls to afterworld bring bad luck and death. How justified are such attitudes towards ravens? Here are some interesting facts about their abilities, and perhaps your attitude towards these birds will change a lot.

1. Remember friend and foe

In Seattle, on the territory of the college, scientists conducted an interesting experiment. They caught seven crow and just labeled them. Birds no harm was done, they just experienced some inconvenience and stress. After tagging, the birds were released. Yes, a small detail - the scientists who took part in the experiment were wearing ugly leather masks.
The idea was to test whether the birds were able to remember and then distinguish the faces of the people who attacked them. After all, an unprepared person will not be able to isolate one specific crow in a flock. The Ravens did their job.
The crows perfectly remembered the face masks. They actively resented and attacked people in masks. Moreover, after some time, the whole flock dived into the "villains" in in full force. Interesting fact, the birds attacked not just people in masks, but people in those masks. That is, they distinguish our faces, they can isolate the right person in the crowd, and they can attract their colleagues to harassment.
By the way, without masks, scientists for birds were of no interest. It remains now to check whether birds remember good deeds just as well? Well, at least we can say with confidence that the memory and observation skills of crows are excellently developed.

2. Pass on the testament to posterity

Returning to the previous experiment, it is worth once again emphasizing that the crows somehow managed to convey to their relatives the description of their offenders. No, here we can assume that the herd instinct has worked - if one screams about danger and attacks, others will do the same. But still, scientists have found that there are dialects in the crow's croak. "Conversations" of crows of different regions will be different. But whether they have a language is still difficult to say for certain ....
By the way, it seems that certain information is transmitted from adult crows to their young children.

3. Remember everything

One of Odin's ravens was called Munin (remembering). And not in vain, the crows turned out to have an excellent memory. In the Canadian town of Chatham, there was a stopover for crows on their migration route. Hundreds of thousands of birds occupied the city and surrounding areas. But it was an agricultural area and the surrounding farms suffered huge damage - crows severely spoiled young crops.
People were not going to endure and started a war. As a result, there was a victim, exactly one, only one bird for half a million alive. After this incident, the Chatham birds flew around. Naturally, there were no other victims in the city and its environs.
There were many such cases. Birds they perfectly remember places and situations that ended in victims on their part. They avoid these places, even change their migration routes.

4. Use of improvised materials

We are very good at surviving in a comfortable environment. But what about those who find themselves in extreme circumstances? Then life depends on the ability to find a suitable tool, to figure out how to use it to save the life of a loved one. But crows have to solve such problems all the time.

The fact that animals often use various tools is known not only to scientists. Examples of chimpanzees will not surprise anyone. But many birds use sticks to prey from under the bark of insects, sea otters use stones to break mollusks, even dolphins use tools. Crows are no exception. Scientists installed cameras on them and watched how they deftly take out worms with chopsticks. What's more, the crows used tough leaves and herbs as tools to create other more complex tools!

Scientists to study the abilities of animals conducted many experiments, forcing them to solve situational problems. For example, a group of crows was placed in a cage with a piece of meat. At the same time, the meat was hung on a rope, which was fixed at the end of a stick. So the crows easily figured out to tighten the rope in turn until they got to the coveted piece.

There is a famous Aesop's fable about how a crow threw stones into a jug to get to the water. It is unlikely that Aesop just came up with this situation. Scientists thought the same way and decided to reproduce the events of the fable. And they did it with different crows four times and got the same results. A crow, a deep container of water in which tasty worms swam, and a pile of pebbles were placed in a cage. Crows just couldn't get worms. The results are amazing - 2 crows managed to find a solution on the second attempt, the rest figured it out the first time! At the same time, they began to throw not just any pebbles, but chose the largest ones. And they threw it exactly until the moment when it was possible to pull the worms out of the rising water.

The next experiment included, in addition to crows, a small basket hidden in a larger vessel and a pair of wires. At the same time, 2 wires were prepared for Adele and Betty, one of which was with a hook, and the second was even. Abel immediately chose the bent one from 2 pieces of wire. Betty thought about her straight cut and carefully folded that too and pulled out her basket. It is worth noting that interesting fact that wire crows seen for the first time.

Well, in order to fully assess the abilities of birds - the last experiment. The bird was placed in a box with a small box containing a large piece of delicious meat. Nearby was a second box with a long stick and a small stick. It was impossible to remove the meat from the box with a small stick. Crow did not think long about the problem, she took out a large stick with a small one, and then got her meat!

5. The art of planning

And this is not about flying. Ravens are able to calculate in advance the actions of others and adjust their own accordingly. The habit of crows to stockpile is well known to many. This, of course, can be done by many other animals. But crows went much further in the art of measures and countermeasures. If one crow tries to hide something, there are several interested observers right there. Then the first, hiding, pretends to have just buried something, and at that moment hides her good on her chest between the feathers. And quickly flies to another place. Observers quickly figure out such tricks, they instantly lose interest in the place of "burial" and follow the real "treasure". These races, competitions in conspiracy can go on for a very long time and reach unprecedented proportions.

6. Master opportunists

Ravens have learned to use the anthropogenic environment for their own purposes. They know that the best way to crack nuts is by throwing them on hard asphalt. Moreover, they throw nuts not just on the ground, but also under the wheels of cars. And calculate the speed of the vehicle. And then they know that picking up a broken nut is possible only at a red traffic light, that cars are dangerous, and in combination with certain external phenomena.

In Russian, a black bird with a black beak means the same word. Because of this, confusion arises with the varieties of birds. Raven and crow - it's perfect different birds, although belonging to the same genus of crows (Corvus). They differ in appearance and behavior. Let's take a closer look at both birds. Let's start with the black crow.

Characteristic

The black raven is a massive bird from the order Passeriformes. The body length reaches 60-68 cm, the length of the wings in males is up to 473 mm, in females up to 460 mm. The mass of males is up to 1,560 grams, females - up to 1,315. Wingspan - up to 120 cm.

It is a black bird with a black beak. The plumage is uniform in color: it has a black color and a greenish or bluish tint. Young birds have no ebb. Small feathers at the base are grayish. The beak is very strong, pointed. Claws are powerful, bent. The tail is wedge-shaped in shape, which is clearly visible in flight. The flight of a raven resembles the soaring of birds of prey.

The bird lives in the countries of Eurasia, North America and North Africa. Crow habitats are forest, mountains, coasts.

Behavioral Features

The raven is considered a rare living creature. It is possible to meet a raven in any season. In winter, it appears near human dwellings, in garbage dumps. By nature, the raven is distrustful and prudent. It moves very well on the ground. Before flying, the bird jumps several times. In captivity lives from 15 to 70 years.

Ravens do not always live in the same territories. Some individuals fly away for the winter. In Turkmenistan, after the appearance of young animals, the number of members of the flock is 40-70 individuals, in the Caucasus in winter the flock is smaller - 10-12 individuals. Birds migrate over distances of up to 200 km. During nesting, crows can fly over impressive distances - to the shores of seas and rivers, to the foothills.

Bird nests form in forest areas, avoiding taiga areas. On treeless territories, rocks, cliffs of the coast are mastered. Nests are placed on trees: lindens, oaks, spruces, in mountainous areas - at heights.

Food

The raven is not selective in nutrition, it is quite omnivorous. Its main food is carrion. In this regard, the raven is considered an orderly. He hunts in the steppes, on the mountains, on the banks of the seas and rivers. Raven collects:

• bodies of dead animals - carrion;
• moles, shrews;
• rodents;
• eggs of birds and chicks;
• fish;
• insects, molluscs, insects.

Nesting

Crows are considered to have reached puberty at the age of 2 years. Birds create indestructible couples. Territories for nesting occupy 3-4 km, and sometimes up to 10. Locations do not change. If the nest was destroyed, the raven forms another one in the same area.

A pair usually creates two nests, and uses them at different times. The nest has existed for several decades. Mating games and pair formation begin in early February or a little later, depending on the habitat.

The new nest is built by the male and the female together. It is placed on the tops of different trees: oak, linden, aspen. The height at which the nest is located is usually 20 meters. If the bird is not disturbed, it can build nests near the human dwelling. Nesting structures are located on towers, temple belfries, on the roofs of buildings.

Arrangement of the nest is carried out in the stem forks in the trees. The nest itself is made of strong branches, with wool as a flooring. Egg laying begins in mid-February. The further north the territory, the later laying begins.

The number of eggs laid is 4-6, sometimes up to 7. The interval between clutches is 1-2 days. The size of the egg is 50x33 mm. Color - greenish-blue. Experts do not know for sure whether the female incubates the eggs alone or alternately with the male. Both parents provide food for the chicks. The chicks hatch in mid-May. After that, they live with their parents for a long time, the mortality rate among young individuals is very high. Grown up chicks leave adult birds only in autumn.

Legends and stories

According to biblical tradition, earlier this black bird with a long beak was white. The coloring changed in punishment after the Flood. When Noah released the raven from the ark, the bird did not return to tell the righteous man whether the water had gone, but began to eat the corpses. Noah cursed the raven, and he became black and predatory.

However, it was the raven that fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, so the biblical attitude towards these birds is not always negative.

The legend of the elders speaks of Saint Paul of Thebes, to whom a raven brought a piece of bread every day.

Voron Voronovich is found in the tales of the ancient Slavs. It is he who brings living and dead water.

In England, it was believed that with the departure of the ravens, the monarchy would collapse. For this reason, Churchill ordered the birds to be fed during the war so that people would not be disturbed.

In Stalin's times, NKVD cars were black, for which they were called "funnel".

This is the basic information about the crow. Let's move on to the description of the black crow.

General information

It is a black bird with a black beak. She lives in Europe and East Asia. In Russia, it settles in the Siberian regions and the Far East. Many species of this bird are known.

Black crows are divided into four main subspecies:

• gray;
• eastern gray;
• black;
• eastern black.

The territories of the settlements of these birds often mix, as a result of which new varieties of crows appear. The description of the bird will be considered below.

External Data

The black crow looks like a rook. They belong to the same genus Corvus. She has black feathers with a greenish, bluish or purple tint. This is especially clearly seen when the sun's rays hit the plumage.

The beak and paws are also black. There are small feathers on the nostrils. The tail is rounded. Compared to the raven, this bird has a more modest size. The length of her body is 48-52 cm. It weighs 700 grams.

Behavioral Features

The crow is a bird that creates pairs. In winter, they can form flocks and occupy the nests of other birds. Often they get their own food in the same area as rooks with magpies.

The crow makes characteristic sounds. You can easily recognize this bird by its voice. Her voice has one timbre, the bird utters a cry of "k-r-a-a." Sitting on the upper level of the tree, the crow behaves noisily, because it croaks many times without stopping, forming only short pauses.

Sometimes the croaking lasts for hours. In intervals, the bird changes its location. The flap of her wings is unhurried, there is no haste and fuss in her flight.

The black crow feeds on carrion, grains, insects, mammals and human food waste. In search of food, birds fly to human settlements. The crow finds food in the garbage dumps not far from human houses. However, finding products better than ordinary garbage, he will prefer them. There are cases when urban crows easily stole food from stores during unloading.

Offspring

Reproduction of crows begins when they reach the age of two years. Birds make pairs. Nests are built from reliable branches and placed on the tops of buildings or treetops.

In places where there is no person, the nest can be located on the ground. The female incubates the eggs. Their number is 4-6 pieces. The male takes care of the food of the family. After 17-19 days, chicks appear. At first they are naked, and after a month they are covered with feathers.

Grown up birds do not always form their own families, often continue to live with their parents and help feed new generations of chicks.

Interesting stories

A crow is a bird often called a winged rat for its intelligence and courage.

When feeding chicks, adult females pre-soak bread in puddles.

Crows are able to reproduce the sounds of human speech. Ornithologists say that these birds can solve the simplest logical tasks. Birds distinguish traffic signals. When red, they slowly eat carrion on the road. With a green signal, they fly away quickly.

Experts recorded the entertainment of crows. Birds near the tennis court got a ball and began to drive it along the roof. The game ended only when the ball rolled down from the roof.

Crows steal the eggs of large birds - bustards and little bustards. They love to eat other people's eggs.

In nature, a bird lives 10-60 years.

So, what is the difference between these birds?

Differences in manners

Raven and crow differ in nuances of behavior. These include:

• Flight feature. The raven flies in the same way as other predators - it flaps its wings heavily and leisurely. The crow, on the other hand, waves often and lightly. Her flight is faster.
• Start of flight. The crow starts its flight by jumping, and the crow takes off immediately.
• Various sounds produced. The raven croaks and the crow clicks.
• Raven intelligence. This bird is considered very smart and developed, in terms of intelligence it is not inferior to primates.

External differences

By appearance it is difficult to confuse the two species of these birds. Raven is very large bird up to 70 cm long, it is one and a half times larger than a crow. The crow has a more modest size - up to 56 cm long.

The plumage of birds also differ. The feathers of the raven are pure black, the feathers of the crow are black and gray.

The shape of the tail of a raven is wedge-shaped, while that of a crow is rounded.

In a raven, the goiter has a shaggy plumage, in a crow there is no plumage at all.

Differences in lifestyle

Many differences can be seen in the way of life. Raven, having reached adulthood, finds a mate to whom he remains faithful throughout his life. The crow is looking for a mate only for the nesting period. The rest of the time she lives in a pack.

The raven builds two nests, which, together with the female, use them in turn for many years. Migration of the crow family is rare, only when there is a real threat. The nests of these birds are high, it is almost impossible for a person to find them. In addition, the nest has an impressive size.

A crow may well build a nest where a person lives. Most often, these birds live in various settlements. The behavior of the crow in the city indicates a good adaptation of birds to such living conditions. You can see the lack of fearfulness and their restrained caution.

Birds are able to distinguish people. They watch who approaches them, are able to critically assess the situation and build their behavior. Depending on the situation, the bird either flies away or continues to watch the person.

When combined in flocks, birds become aggressive. They can attack animals - cats and dogs. In a flock, birds are sensitive to the behavior of its members. If someone shows concern, the pack will respond responsively.

Ravens love to stray into flocks, and they adjoin the groups of rooks and jackdaws. In autumn, such flocks move great distances. The raven does not join flocks - it makes any flights alone.

The chicks are also different. In a crow, the chicks are large, a month after the appearance they practically do not differ from adults. They leave their parental nests early. Crows have much smaller chicks, they are in no hurry to leave their parents.

Other differences

In addition to those listed above, there are other differences:

• The raven lives on lands with subtropical and temperate climatic conditions in Eurasia and North America. The crow settles in Eurasia and Northeast Africa. This is the essential difference. Crows have a much more modest habitat.
• Life span. The lifespan of a raven is much longer than that of a crow. The average life span of the latter is 8 years. There are legends about the life of a crow, according to which they can live up to 300 years.
• The crow is not embarrassed by the neighborhood of a person. She settles quietly in cities. Raven is used to living alone or in pairs.

Are there common features?

Despite many differences, there are common features that unite these black birds with a black beak. Here they are:

• Both those and others feed on carrion, performing a sanitary function. Both species of birds are omnivorous and do not disdain any food.
• Both of them have a developed intellect. Both types of birds have their own language, they are capable of logical thinking, they know how to handle tools, imitate human speech. It is even possible that these birds can count.

Be that as it may, both the raven and the crow are beautiful birds that live next door to us.

Today I propose to get acquainted with the most synanthropic bird - the gray crow. Absolutely all residents of cities and villages know this bird.

A bit of biology

First, let's talk about systematics. As a separate species, the crow (Corvus cornix L.) was described by C. Linnaeus together with a species close to it - the black crow (Corvus corone L.). Further research found that in the vast areas of contact, black and gray crows form mixed pairs, give full-fledged offspring capable of reproduction. This indicates that the gray and black crows in nature have not yet reached the complete reproductive isolation characteristic of the present species. Therefore, taxonomists combined the black and gray crows into one species - the crow (Corvus corone), giving them the rank of subspecies. Under a single species name, the gray and black crows are included in systematic summaries and large monographs. However, a 2002 study showed that hybrids do not appear in all cases and are inferior in health to purebred birds - a sign of the formation of a new species, its separation from the parent species. Now the scientific name of the gray crow is Corvus cornix (actually just "crow"), and the black crow is Corvus corone.

Gray crow (lat. Corvus cornix) - a species of birds from the genus of crows. Outwardly, the gray crow has a large black beak, their plumage on the head is black, the neck and part of the hind back are ash-gray, the wings are black, but in the sun they acquire reflections of green. Black tail and paws. The underbelly is also grey. 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. And a rather graceful body structure. On the ground it moves with wide steps, in case of danger it begins to “jump”. An adult bird weighs from 400 to 700 grams, and the body length is about 50 centimeters, while the wingspan reaches 1 meter. Distributed in Eurasia, where it reaches the Yenisei. A sedentary nomadic species, completely disappears in winter only from the northern periphery of the range.

Crows are omnivorous birds, they feed on insects, chicks and eggs, rodents and lizards, frogs, fish; plant food - the seeds of various plants, as well as the plants themselves, as well as food waste and carrion, which is of great importance for sanitation.

The Hooded Crow starts nesting in March-April (depending on the climate). When crows build nests, they separate from the flock and try to protect the boundaries of their area. In cities, the widespread breakdown into pairs and mating games can be observed already in February. The earliest chicks appear not earlier than April, in one clutch there are 3-6 eggs, less often up to 7-8. As a rule, birds do not use old nests; they make new ones, but not far from the old ones. AT wild nature birds breed at a distance of 1-2 km from another pair, in the city this gap is much less. The breeding season is preceded by a current with air games, chases, somersaults in the air. Partners build a new nest every season. The Hooded Crow starts nesting in March-April (depending on the climate). Bird nests are arranged in parks and squares, in the fork of thick tree branches, power line supports, cranes, behind drainpipes. Ravens build nests from dry branches or reeds, fastened with clay and turf, in addition, they often use wire, line the nest with feathers, grass, tow, cotton wool, rags, and synthetics. Near the nest behaves cautiously and imperceptibly. As is known, the limits of clutch volume in birds are a genetically determined trait. In crows, the minimum full clutch is 2 eggs, the maximum is 6, and the average clutch contains 3 to 5 eggs. The female lays 4-6 bluish-green eggs with dark speckles, from the end of March to May.

They are incubated by one female, for 18-19 days, without leaving the nest around the clock, the male feeds her during the incubation period. After 25 days, the chicks hatch and are fed by both parents. Growing chicks need food that is easy to digest and high in calories. The best food for them is the eggs of other birds. Ravens ruthlessly plunder other people's nests to feed their chicks. The chicks fly out around the middle of June, for some time they stay with their parents who feed them. In July, family flocks break up.

By autumn, crows are concentrated in large numbers around landfills, garbage dumps and other sources of food. They reproduce in the 2nd-5th year of life. The maximum accurately known age is 20 years.

Interesting Crow Facts

The crow is a professional scavenger with concentrated stomach acid, high body temperature, and resistance to a vast number of infections. It is from her that a person practically does not have a chance to pick up an infection. Moreover, by exterminating dead birds of other species, as well as the carcasses of mice and rats, crows prevent the spread of many infections.

In Moscow, at the Rizhsky railway station, half a century ago, biologists noticed that the crows perfectly learned the schedule of suburban trains and learned to fly up to the platform just when the train was approaching the platform. Birds quickly flew into all the vestibules in turn, looking for scraps thrown by the passengers of the last flight. Moreover, sparrows and pigeons living there have learned the habits of crows, and to this day, bird patrols regularly fly over trains.

Ravens hide their prey, taking care that no one sees it. If another bird suddenly witnessed such an action, the prey will be hidden, but only when the unexpected witness disappears.

Female crows are quite picky in choosing a partner and look for certain qualities or traits in them. A good chosen one should be able to provide for a "family" and be smart enough. Males do everything to attract female attention: dead loops, flying upside down, and other aerobatics.

Crows communicate with each other, the crow language is extremely developed, has a rich "vocabulary". It has special sounds for courting the female, addressing the young, gathering, cursing, threatening, alarms, distress. Sometimes several birds make the same sound, in unison. For more volume. In cases where a general fee is declared. The sounds made by crows fit into the range from 0.5 to 4.0 kHz. And here's what's remarkable: different countries these birds have their own dialects - they do not immediately understand each other.

Crows leave most of their droppings under their nests, which they build in trees (you definitely shouldn’t park your car there). The crow, the only bird, can be taught to use the toilet - precisely because the bird knows how to control this process, tries not to dirty it in its nest, and usually empties its intestines when flying out and flying into it.

Ravens create one pair for life. In the event of a predator approaching, males can sacrifice themselves to save their soulmate and chicks.

There is another oddity in the behavior of birds, whom the crow dies, her comrades arrange a memorial service. Having found the body of a dead bird, for fifteen minutes they fill the space with heartbreaking cries, as if on command, the birds wipe, sit on the branches and mournfully remain silent. Modern researchers cannot explain this phenomenon.

Crows can count. If a crow is given a choice of two feeders with different amounts of food, it will almost always choose the one with more food. For example, 14 beetles were placed in one feeder, and 15 in another. A person could not immediately determine where there were more beetles, but the crows did it with ease. In addition, crows learn to recognize numbers very quickly and subsequently can even determine which number is larger and which is smaller!

Ravens do not just remember their offender, they transmit information to other birds. Surprisingly, even "children" will be hostile against those whom their parents have "cursed".

City crows love games, they are not afraid of dogs and cats. In the forest, birds often play with predators, people have watched the birds chase a fox, a wolf or an otter. In winter, people often watched the birds roll from the icy mountain and church domes. And crows love team games. One of the birds holds some small object in its beak, it can be a stick, a bump or a stone. the crow takes off heavily and passes the “pass” to another player. This continues until the toy is on the ground.

So, crows correctly determine the meaning of traffic lights - at red light they calmly pick up the corpses of animals hit by cars on the road, and at green they fly away. They perfectly distinguish what is in the hands - a person's stick or a gun, they distinguish between a child and an adult, a man and a woman. But it seems that this is not the limit and the crows are capable of more. They can do extraordinary things. Stop, look around, assess the situation. Recall what you have seen before.

In frosts, they sit down for the night, and closely nestle against each other, putting their heads under the wing and fluffing their feathers, which retain heat well.

Gray crows not only speak, but also master exactly the language in which they communicate with them. If a crow begins to imitate a voice, it does it with such intonations that you cannot distinguish the voice of a person you know from the voice of a crow.

The crow, unlike other birds, eats the contents of a stolen egg far from the crime scene and prints it from the blunt end. To transport the stolen bird punches a hole in the egg, inserts the upper part of the beak into the resulting hole, holding the prey from below. And so, with her mouth open, she leaves the scene of the crime.

In addition, crows have excellent memory and high learning ability. According to experts, they have the ability for rational activity, exhibit associative and logical thinking, possess elementary mathematical knowledge (count up to five, distinguish between shape, symmetry, size ratio, three-dimensional bodies and flat figures).

If in any place the nesting population of crows grows too large, the birds themselves reduce the number of offspring. Large overpopulation affects the growth of aggressiveness of crows, and they ruthlessly destroy the nests of their relatives.

When the bird finds dry bread, it will not immediately eat coarse food. The bird will look for a source suitable for any puddle, wait until the crust softens.

The crow dropped a crust of dried bread into the stream, and it disappeared into the pipe, carried away by the fast current. At first, the bird settled down at the entrance to the pipe and peered into the darkness for a long time. Then she confidently went to the opposite end of the pipe, where she waited for the lost prey. That is, the crow was able to correctly predict the course of events and showed the ability to extrapolate.

There were cases when a crow, protecting its offspring, threw small stones at people approaching the nest.

Means of communication. The sound signaling of birds is especially diverse. If chickens make 13 different sounds, roosters 15, tits 90, then rooks - 120, and gray crows - up to 300 (!). Most researchers are convinced of the signal nature of these sounds. With their help, birds convey a general emotional and mental state - anxiety, aggressiveness, joy from communication or pleasure when finding food. However, some ornithologists believe that birds have their own language, which is a means of communication, communication to convey certain information.

The gray crow is one of the most synanthropic representatives of corvids, a typical inhabitant of cities. There are both completely sedentary urban populations, and populations nesting in natural landscapes, as well as transitional ones. Many individuals living in forests countryside spend the winter in the suburbs and cities.

When feeding on a relatively compact food source (a waste bin, a large piece of hard-to-separate food, etc.), group members are fed in a relatively strict sequence. Filming data of feeding groups make it possible to single out three hierarchical stages (strata). Priority is always on the side of the local adult couple. From the feed, they can displace and expel any other member of the group. Conflicts rarely arise between members of a couple. When feeding one of them, the second waits nearby, maintaining an individual distance and a certain orientation in relation to the partner. In the absence of hosts, priority in feeding passes to some individuals of the second hierarchical level. This usually includes all birds of local origin (including first years) included in the group, as well as part of the immigrants. Within this hierarchical stratum, there is a hierarchy linear type, but not as rigid and stable over time as between strata. The third hierarchical stage, as a rule, consists of birds from mobile groups, temporarily feeding as part of a settled group.

Watching these birds, you can see: if a person is just walking down the street, the crows do not seem to notice him and can let him in 2-3 meters. But as soon as he stops and looks at them closely, they immediately bounce 10 meters away.

There is a famous Aesop's fable about how a crow threw stones into a jug to get to the water. Scientists decided to reproduce the events of the fable. Moreover, they did it with different crows four times and got the same results. A crow, a deep container of water in which tasty worms swam, and a pile of pebbles were placed in a cage. Crows just couldn't get worms. The results are amazing - 2 crows managed to find a solution on the second attempt, the rest figured it out the first time. At the same time, they began to throw not just any pebbles, but chose the largest ones. And they threw it exactly until the moment when it was possible to pull the worms out of the rising water.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Leonid Viktorovich Krushinsky, a professor at Moscow University, conducted the most interesting research on the abilities of animals. He proved that different animals act intelligently in a new environment for them, and not just on the basis of unconditioned and conditioned reflexes.

Ravens enjoy a very strange activity called enting. It consists in crushing the ants and rubbing them into the body. When the ants are crushed, formic acid is released, which is absorbed into the crows' skin and seems to give them a very pleasant sensation. Why do they do it? No one knows for sure, but there is no shortage of hypotheses. According to one such hypothesis, enting is a form of ant cooking that renders ravens immune to formic acid. This allows the crows to eat the ants without adverse effects.

Others believe that enting is a learned behavior or instinct that birds can't do anything about. Maybe formic acid is used as a kind of bath oil and has a soothing effect on the skin of birds. At the same time, the enting birds seem to be in a state of complete bliss. Maybe it's actually much simpler. And perhaps crows and other birds cover themselves with squashed ants simply because it gives them pleasure.

Ravens are able to ride on snowy hills, solely for the purpose of entertainment. It is not uncommon to see crows playing with other animals, most often cats and dogs. And in the wild - otters, wolves. In the game, the crow can use sticks, cones, balls and other objects that it finds nearby.

The crow is a bird belonging to the order Passeriformes, the corvidae family, the genus in about rony ( Corvus).

Previously, in Russia, the crow was called "vra". According to linguists, the name of the bird is most likely consonant with the words "witness", "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.

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. A distinctive feature of all crows living in Australia is the 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 highlands and the 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 Far East Russia, 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.

Crow at home

If you want to have a crow at home, then it is advisable to choose a young individual or even a chick. The crow is far from being a clean animal, there will be enough dirt from it. It is advisable to make an aviary for her and put linoleum or some kind of metal coating on the bottom, which can be covered with sawdust. Caring for a crow at home is quite difficult, the bird should be bathed, sunbathed, and also given the opportunity to fly.

Many people wonder how to tame a crow. This will be easy if you take a 2-3 month old crow. But if the crow is older than 6 months, do not expect obedience from it.

So, in order for your crow to become tame, you must, in addition to caring for it, give it at least 2-3 hours a day for walks and training every day. Ravens can be trained as birds of prey, and they can also be released into the wild for a walk. True, for a start it is better to do this with special leather straps on the paws. When your domestic crow begins to behave obediently, you can let it fly freely, and it will definitely return to you.

potatoes, citrus fruits, milk and sweets are best limited. It is strictly forbidden to give the bird salt and salty foods.

• Crows are smart birds especially when it comes to food. The crow will not spoil its beak, trying to extract the contents of the nut, but will throw it on the roadway and wait until the wheels of the car crush the shell.
• A crow will never eat hard breadcrumbs, but will first soak the delicacy in a puddle.
• At the end of the last century, triangular milk bags were very popular among crows. If it was possible to pull off a full package of milk, the crow bent the sharp tip of the package with its beak for ease of carrying, and in a safe place pierced a hole in it and enjoyed fresh milk.
• Crows do not like to be bored, so they will never miss an opportunity to have fun. In winter, birds ride down ice slides and sloping roofs of cathedrals, and in summer they tease cats and dogs with rapture.
• You can often see how the crows play: one flies high and throws some object, the other, deftly diving, picks up, soars up, and the game continues.

Latin name- Corvus corax
English title-Raven
Class- Birds (Aves)
Detachment- Passeriformes (Passeriformes)
Family- Corvids (Сorvidae)
Genus- Raven (Corvus)

The raven is the largest representative of the passerine order and one of the smartest birds in the world fauna.

conservation status

Ravens are common, but not numerous, in almost the entire territory of their vast range. By international status it belongs to the species whose existence causes the least concern. It does not require special security measures.

View and person

Being an omnivorous bird, the raven is now, as a rule, quite closely related to humans (although it prefers to nest away from him). Throughout the year, crows often feed in city dumps and man-made landfills. There they find food in abundance. And, having such an excellent food base, crows are forced to endure the close presence of a person and can settle even on the outskirts of large cities.

Young crows are well tamed, but even after living in captivity for a long time, they remain quite independent. Adult birds are tamed with great difficulty or not tamed at all. Hand crows are often taught to pull out various lottery tickets and all sorts of papers with predictions, which they perform with enviable dexterity and ease.

The Tower of London has long been state support live tame crows and with them special caretakers. There is a legend that as long as ravens live in the Tower, Great Britain will exist. So for the British, the presence of ravens is "a matter of life and death."

The appearance of the raven (large and black), its rough voice, behavior and character of food (scavenger) served to ensure that he turned out to be a hero (most often negative) of mythology, folklore, fiction, music, painting. Most often in myths and legends, the raven is associated with evil and death. He flies to the place of bloodshed and pecks out the eyes of the dead warriors. In Scandinavian myths, ravens portend the death of heroes. In Russian fairy tales, ravens are also usually associated with evil spirits (with Baba Yaga) and with death. One of our darkest proverbs is also associated with not the best ideas about crows (and about people) “A crow will not peck out a crow’s eye.” However, there is also a positive image of a raven as a wise, strong and courageous bird. In the ancient oriental legend about Gilgamesh, only a raven released from Noah's ark was able to fly to the land, freed after the Flood. The image of the raven is reflected in fiction. So, the famous poem by the American poet Edgar Allan Poe is called "The Raven". The Russian writer I. A. Bunin has a story with this name.
In heraldry, the raven is a symbol of foresight and longevity, and its images are found in the coats of arms of both individual noble families and families, as well as cities and entire regions.

Distribution and habitats

The range of the raven is very extensive, it is distributed in Eurasia (including Greenland), North America and North Africa from the Arctic coasts to the subtropics and the northern border of the tropics. It rises to the mountains up to 5000–8000 m.
In Russia, it is absent only on the northernmost peninsulas (Yamal, Taimyr, Gydan) and on most of the Arctic islands.
Ecologically, the raven is very plastic; it can live in a wide variety of landscapes: in the forest, desert, and mountains.
There are 9 subspecies of the raven, which differ mainly in size. On the territory of Eurasia, the sizes increase from west to east, that is, the crows living in Siberia are larger than their counterparts from Spain.

Appearance

The raven is the largest representative of the passerine order. Its body length is 60–65 cm, the wing length is 43–44 cm, the weight of males is 1.1-!.5 kg, females - 0.8-1.3 kg, wingspan - 1.4-!.5 m.

The plumage is black with a bluish, greenish or purple metallic sheen. The beak is sharp and strong, black. On the throat there is a "beard" of elongated feathers. The iris of the eyes is dark brown. The tail is wedge-shaped, which is clearly visible in a flying bird.
Sexual dimorphism is expressed only in size, males are somewhat larger than females.
The coloration of young birds is also black, but dull, without a metallic sheen.

Lifestyle, social structure and social behavior.

The raven is a very cautious bird, usually it does not let close to itself.
The beautiful, free flight of a raven is more like the flight of a bird of prey than the flight of other corvids, the bird can soar for a long time, and also perform complex figures in the air, especially during paired air currents. During a fast flight, the feathers emit a characteristic ringing.
The raven moves well on the ground, and before taking off, it makes several jumps on the ground, as if running up.

The behavior of ravens in nature (during nesting, feeding) is so complex, unpredictable and sometimes inexplicable from our human point of view that scientists are forced to admit that ravens have a certain intelligence. The interaction of ravens with each other, with other birds, with humans shows that these birds can solve quite complex life tasks, learn throughout their lives, and perfectly adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions.

Ravens lead a sedentary lifestyle almost throughout the entire range, only in years of significant food shortages they can migrate from their nesting sites. However, young ravens have a significant expansion. They roam in groups of 3-7 individuals and move over considerable distances. Ringing of young ravens in the European part of the range showed that they move 50–200 km from the place where they hatched from the egg.

Crows are active during the day when they go in search of food.
It can be considered that the raven occupies the ecological niche of large birds of prey: like them, the raven nests in separate permanent pairs (no closer than 1 km from each other), has a large hunting territory, builds massive nests high on trees or rocks, feeds on carrion or actively hunts .

Feeding and feeding behavior

Crows are omnivorous, but the basis of their diet is carrion, so the main feeding places for crows are located near landfills and slaughterhouses. In addition, they can find prey in a variety of places - on forest edges, clearings and burnt areas, on mountain pastures, on sea coasts. The prey includes the corpses of both large animals and small animals, as well as birds and their eggs, frogs, insects, and on the coasts - dead fish, sea ​​urchins, shellfish. Thus, the raven plays the role of a nurse in nature.
It is precisely with carrion feeding that the early nesting of the crow (in February-March) is also associated, when the corpses of animals that died during the winter thaw out from under the snow, on which sometimes up to a dozen nearby crows gather. However, the raven also manifests itself as a real predator and catches live animals, most often rodents and lizards. A pair of ravens by joint efforts can overcome a hare or a medium-sized wounded ungulate. There are cases when crows broke turtle shells and large bones, throwing them from a height onto stones. Sometimes crows stock up on food.

Vocalization

The raven's voice is loud, and its characteristic "kru" can be heard at a great distance. In addition to this "kru" crows can reproduce a variety of sounds, depicting the creaking of trees, the cries of other birds and animals, and even the human voice with their voice. Ravens living in captivity can be taught to speak not only single words, but also simple phrases.

Reproduction, parental behavior and rearing of offspring

Crows are monogamous, their pairs are constant. They reach sexual maturity at about 2 years of age.
The nesting area is large and also permanent. In case of loss of the nest for one reason or another, the crows remain on their site and build a new nest near the old one or occupy someone else's. Usually there are 2 nests on the site, which the pair occupies alternately in different years.

For nesting, crows choose fairly tall trees, and any - deciduous of various species or conifers, and in treeless places (tundra, desert) adhere to rocks. Both birds build a new nest or repair an old one and choose branches of the main tree trunk for this.

Crow laying begins very early (in different parts of the range - in February-March) and this is due to the disappearance of the snow cover. Sometimes crows incubate clutch even in great cold (down to -30 degrees.). The clutch usually contains 4–6 blue-green eggs with dark spots. The interval between oviposition is 1-2 days. Incubation begins after laying the 2nd or 3rd egg and lasts 19–21 days. According to some sources, only the female incubates, according to others, the male also takes part. Normally, there is only one clutch per year, but if it is lost, a second clutch may be postponed. Both parents feed the chicks the same food that they eat themselves.

The chicks take to the wing at the age of 5–6 weeks, so the entire nesting period lasts about 1.5 months. The chicks that have flown out of the nest stay together on the parent site until the start of the next breeding season.

Lifespan

According to fairy tales and legends, the prophetic raven lives for 300 years. However, the real raven is not endowed with such longevity. According to some reports, he lives in nature up to 70 years, according to others - much less - about 30.

The history of life in the zoo

We have crows living at the exposition " Animal world Russia" in the Old Territory. Naturally, they are kept outside all year round. Their loud guttural cry can often be heard walking around the Old Territory. Now 3 crows, a single male and a pair live in two neighboring enclosures. Sometimes, they are placed together in the same enclosure, but during the breeding season they often fight. This couple is elderly, they are almost 20 years old. Every spring there are mating games, nest building, the female even lays eggs, but nothing hatches from them. The female either abandons the clutch or eats the eggs, so the staff cannot even check whether they are fertilized or not.

The diet of crows includes both vegetable and animal feed, only about 600 g per day: various grains, bread, vegetables, nuts, meat, fish, cottage cheese, eggs and 2 mice daily.

Another 2 crows live in the "travelling animals" group. Zoo visitors cannot see them, but those residents of Moscow, where a lecture group arrives with tamed animals, can see them. Ravens tolerate city trips well and behave well at lectures, obeying the trainer and demonstrating all their natural qualities and virtues.