Crows, Magpies, and Jays

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear, "crow?"  Scarecrow?  The scary 1963 movie, "The Birds?"  What about "raven?" Edgar Allen Poe's poem, "The Raven?"  Crows and ravens, the glossy black birds, are generally perceived to be the 'bad boys' of birds. They are large, like to steal and eat other birds' eggs, including farmers' chickens' eggs, also like to eat chicks and other small animals and insects. Crows and ravens are frequently seen with vultures feasting on dead animals. They will eat anything and use a large variety of objects with which to construct their nests.  The seem loud and argumentative.

T. Gilbert Pearson explores the habits of Crows, Magpies and Jays: Unusual Intelligence Has Earned a Unique Position For These Birds,National Geographic Magazine, January, 1933.  "Although sometimes ravens use trees as nesting sites, their usual selection is a high, beetling cliff,"  (p. 53).  Ravens mate for life and generally use the same nest season after season.

Crows like to take odd items to their nests; "a broken bit of china, a dry chicken bone, the cap from a ginger-ale bottle, a small block of painted wood, a glossy beetle, and pebbles of various hues are objects which may take their fancy.  They have been known to carry away thimbles, small scissors, and pipes, (p. 58).

What are the differences between crows and ravens?  "Crows often accumulate in large numbers.  Hundreds of thousands have been known to assemble in some favorite roost," (p. 58).  Crows can be very intimidating!  Ravens are larger, as big as a small hawk and generally stay in pairs.

Magpies are in the same bird family and have black beaks.  They are also well-known for raiding other birds' nests, eating small animals such as mice and squirrels. From the color paintings in this article, I know I've never seen a magpie.  It has blue, green, black, and white feathers, very handsome.

Blue jays, another member of this bird family, are familiar visitors to my yard.  They are always loud and crabby! I think they are strikingly beautiful with their crest on their heads and their blue and white coloring.   The blue jay also "bears the reputation of being a plunderer of the nests of other birds, (p. 62).

There is variation among the birds, depending on which geographic region they inhabit.  In Texas, there is a 'green jay,' a bird which looks like a blue jay on which green paint has fallen on its back!  The jays from Canada and Oregon are black, white, and gray.  Then there is the 'Santa Cruz blue jay,' found only on that island off the coast of California, which looks like our familiar blue jay but without the crest and with an area of grey coloring on its back which looks like a cape.

FYI:  The cardinals who started pecking on my backyard windows are still at it!  As soon as it gets light in the morning, usually the male starts pecking.  Hope he enjoys himself!