What are crow chicks called? Common raven

The life of crows is very interesting and eventful, watching them is a pleasure. These birds are found in any forests. In addition, crows are common inhabitants of settlements. You can meet them in small villages and even in big cities.

Most common hoodie. In size, a crow is larger than a jackdaw or rook, but practically half the size of a raven. The hooded crow's body is ash gray, and the head, wings, tail, beak, legs, and front of the throat are blue-black. Crows' nests are very similar to those of rooks. They usually make them in the forks of a thick tree trunk, but sometimes a crow's nest can be seen in city parks or gardens. Some crows can build a nest even on the eaves of tall buildings.

Very often children are interested in where crows live in winter. After observing these birds, scientists found that crows make regular migrations in spring and autumn. In the fall they fly to more southern regions and return in the spring. So, for example, crows from the Moscow region fly to Kharkov or Kyiv, and Arkhangelsk crows settle in the Moscow region. Therefore, the crows that we encounter in winter are not those that originally built their nests here and raised their chicks, but those that flew from places with more severe frosts. However, only young crows make flights. The old ones fly away from human habitation in the spring, and in the winter they return again and join flocks of visiting young crows and jackdaws.

In captivity, the crow is very easy to tame. This bird has a rather easy temperament, but loves to play pranks. She does this cunningly so that the owner does not notice. The crow is easy to train. She can be taught to speak not only words, but also small phrases. In captivity, she is fed porridge, meat, bread and other common foods.

Despite the fact that crows have nests, it is sometimes very difficult to answer the question of where crows sleep in winter. This is due to the fact that these birds very rarely spend the night in their native nest. In winter they usually sleep on branches tall trees. However, they choose quieter places for this, away from heavily lit areas or busy highways. At other times of the year, crows fly to the forest or plantings to spend the night. By observing the crow, scientists found that if it is not disturbed, it will visit the same tree every year to spend the night. Quite often, the roosting site can be very far from the place where the crow spends time during the day.

On a note

In spring, the male and female build a nest together, in which the chicks are hatched. The babies are fed a wide variety of foods. These can be mollusks, insects, lizards, and fish, earthworms, frogs, mice, bird eggs and even the chicks of other birds. Even when the mature chicks begin to fly (after five weeks), the parents continue to feed and care for them. After a certain time, when the chicks become completely independent, they join the flocks and return to the nesting sites only to spend the night. In autumn, crows begin to fly to wintering areas. They can fly from their native places to a distance of about two to two and a half thousand kilometers. The flight speed, in this case, reaches fifty kilometers per hour, although in ordinary life the crow is quite sedate.

On the one hand, crows are beneficial because they destroy harmful insects and pick up carrion. On the other hand, these birds cause quite significant damage to the fields, as they peck grains from ears of corn, peck cucumbers and melons, and destroy the eggs of other birds.

Crow behavior in natural environment cannot be called imprudent, since they are very careful and observant. People who make mistakes are often called crows, but this does not at all correspond to the behavior of birds. Crows are very good at reading people. Their attitude towards him depends on whether a person can benefit or harm them. Let's say they flock in a whole flock to the place where they noticed a person carrying a trash can to the container. If they notice a child throwing stones or sticks at them, the entire flock will immediately disappear. If crows have ever met a hunter, they will fly away from a man with a gun, while they are not at all afraid of a man with a stick.

In addition to caution, ravens are also distinguished by their passion for savings and frugality. They will never leave the remaining food. Usually they try to hide excess food in their favorite place so that they can return for it later. Moreover, they can remember this place quite long time. Crows of any type have a passion for everything shiny. All she has to do is see some shiny object or a candy wrapper, as she begins to circle around him. She will watch the thing that interests her until she can drag it away.

In conclusion of the article, it should be noted that a person’s attitude towards crows should be in accordance with the role these birds play in the economy of the area in which they live. In case of application great harm, many farmers are trying to get rid of them.

Amazing bird raven. Thanks to its ability to adapt to almost any living conditions, it has spread throughout the planet, and its gloomy silhouette in the sky is familiar to every person. For some, the raven is a harbinger of misfortune, and for others it is a symbol of wisdom and patience. His image is widespread in mythology, fiction, music and cinematography.

For centuries, people have adopted the raven as a pet, noting the bird's unusual intelligence. At some point, their population on the planet decreased greatly, but today the common raven has been taken under protection by many countries and its numbers have begun to grow again.

Description of the raven

The Latin name of the bird is Corvus corax. The species was first described by naturalist Carl Lynaeus in 1758. Today, ornithologists identify up to 11 subspecies of raven, but the differences between them in terms of phenotype are minimal and are determined by the area of ​​habitat rather than by genetic characteristics.

Raven refers

• kingdom - animals;
• type – chordates;
• class - birds;
• order - passerines;
• family - corvids;
• genus - crows;
• species - common raven.

The bird's closest relatives are the American white-necked crow, piebald and desert brown-headed raven, while in appearance it is most similar to the rook.

Appearance

The raven is the largest representative of passerines. Its body length reaches 70 cm, and its wingspan is up to 150 cm. The weight of the bird can be 800-1600 g, however, it is not uncommon for ornithologists to describe ravens with a body weight of up to 2 kg. The difference in length and weight depends on the habitat - than colder climate, the larger the individuals living in it. That is, the largest representatives of ravens can be found in northern latitudes or in the mountains.

This is interesting! A distinctive feature of the raven is its massive sharp beak and feathers protruding like a fan on the bird’s throat. In flight, a raven can be distinguished from others by its wedge-shaped tail.

Male ravens are larger than females. It is almost impossible to distinguish them by color - both the female and the male are black with a metallic tint. The body is blue or purple on top and green underneath. Young animals are characterized by matte black plumage. The bird's legs are powerful, with large, curved black claws. If necessary, both they and the wide curved beak will become a weapon for attacking the enemy.

Lifestyle and intelligence

Unlike urban gray crows, the common raven is a resident of forest spaces and prefers old coniferous forests. It lives in isolated pairs, only by autumn forming small flocks of 10-40 individuals in order to fly to a new place in search of food. At night the bird sleeps in its nest and spends the whole day hunting. If necessary, one flock can organize an attack on another and recapture the territory within which it will obtain food.

This is interesting! Birds prefer to nest in the forest, however, in the winter they like to move closer to people, for example, to city dumps or cemeteries. There they have a better chance of finding something to eat and surviving the cold.

Raven is a smart bird. He has the same percentage brain to body, as . Scientists even claim that they have intelligence. To confirm this fact, many experiments were carried out, giving the bird the opportunity to reveal mental capacity. One of the most visual tests was based on Aesop's fable "The Crow and the Jug." The birds were placed in a room where there was a pile of pebbles and a narrow vessel with worms that floated in large quantities water.

The birds could not freely get to the delicacy, and then intelligence came to their aid. The crows began throwing stones into the vessel, thereby raising the water level to reach the worms. The experiment was repeated four times with different birds and they all coped with the task - to get to the food. At the same time, the birds not only made rash actions, they threw pebbles until they managed to reach the worms, choosing larger stones, realizing that they could displace more water.

The crow language has also been studied by scientists. It was suggested that croaking is not just a chaotic noise, but a real conversation, and far from primitive. It would be too loud to call it a language, but scientists have come to the conclusion that ravens have something like dialects that change depending on their habitat. Another fact that proves the presence of intelligence in these birds is memory, passed on from generation to generation.

Just one bird killed by farmers can cause a flock to migrate. Crows will remember for a long time the house or area where danger arose and will try with all their might to avoid appearing near it. Another object of attention was the bird's inhibitory control, or more precisely the ability to control instinctive impulses for the sake of rational behavior. Crows were offered opaque tubes with holes containing food.

When they learned to find it accurately, the pipes were replaced with transparent ones. Using self-control, the birds had to extract the food without trying to get it directly by breaking through a transparent wall. Needless to say, they successfully completed this test. This endurance helps the raven wait for hours for food without exposing itself to unnecessary danger.

How long do crows live?

The lifespan of a raven is influenced by its habitat, so it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question of how long this bird lives. In urban birds and those living in wildlife The number of years lived will vary greatly.

This is interesting! The longer a raven lives, the more knowledge, skills and experience he will gain during his life. This bird does not forget anything and becomes smarter and wiser over the years.

Crows that nest within the city and regularly inhale harmful fumes from industrial zones, as well as feed on scraps in landfills, can rarely boast a life expectancy of more than 10 years. However, in urban areas birds have practically no enemies, therefore, under favorable conditions, a raven can live up to 30 years. In nature, a raven lives about 10-15 years. Rare individuals live to be 40, because every day the bird has to hunt for its own food and be exposed to many dangers, including attacks from other predators. Lean autumn and Cold winter can cause the death of an entire flock.

Arabs believe that the raven is an immortal bird. Ancient records speak of individuals who lived 300 years or more, and folk epics they say the raven lives for nine human lives. Ornithologists treat such rumors with great doubt, however, they are confident that if you create a bird favorable conditions in captivity, she may well live 70 years.

What is the difference between a raven and a crow

There is a common misconception among people that a raven is a male and a crow is a female of the same species. In fact, a raven and a crow are two different types belonging to the same corvid family. Such confusion in the Russian language arose due to the similar pronunciation and spelling of the names of birds. There is no confusion in other languages. For example, in English a crow is called "raven", and a crow sounds like "crow". If foreigners confuse these two birds, it is only because of their similar appearance.

This is interesting! Unlike ravens, ravens prefer to settle closer to humans. This makes it easier for them to get food for themselves. In the CIS countries, only the hooded crow is found, which is not difficult to distinguish by the color of its body.

The carrion crow, which can actually be mistaken for a crow, lives mainly in Western Europe and in the eastern part of Eurasia. The length and body weight of the bird is significantly inferior to the crow. Adult males weigh no more than 700 grams, and their body length does not reach 50 cm. There are differences in small details. The crow has no feathering on its crop, and during the flight you can notice that the bird's tail is smoothly rounded, while the raven's tail has a clear wedge-shaped ending.

The crow likes to gather in groups, while the raven stays in pairs or alone. Birds can also be distinguished by hearing. The caw of a raven is deep and guttural, sounds like “kaw!” or “arra!”, and the crow makes a nasal sound similar to a short “ka!” The two species do not get along with each other - often a flock of crows attacks a lone raven.

Area, distribution

The raven lives throughout almost the entire Northern Hemisphere. IN North America it can be found from Alaska to Mexico, in Europe in any country except France, as well as in Asia and North Africa. The bird prefers to settle on sea coasts, deserts or even mountains. But most often the crow can be found in dense ancient forests, mainly spruce. In rare exceptions, the bird settles in city parks and squares.

In the northern part of Eurasia, the bird lives almost everywhere, with the exception of Taimyr, Yamala and Gadyn, as well as on the islands in the Northern Arctic Ocean. In the south, the nesting border runs through Syria, Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and northern India, China and Primorye Russia. In Europe, the bird's habitat has changed significantly over the last century. Raven left the Western and Central parts, meeting there rather as an exception. In North America, the bird also appears less and less often in the center of the continent, preferring to settle on the border with Canada, in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine.

The crow was once widespread in New England, the Adirondack Mountains, the Alleghenies and the coasts of Virginia and New Jersey, as well as the Great Plains region. Due to the mass extermination of wolves and bison, the dead animals of which the bird fed on, the raven left these regions. Compared with other corvids, the common raven is almost not associated with the anthropogenic landscape. It is rarely seen in large cities, although flocks of ravens have been spotted in parkland in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Riverside, as well as in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.

In the second half of the 20th century, the crow began to be noticed in the north-west of Russia, for example, in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Lvov, Chicago, London and Bern. The reason why the raven does not like to settle near a person is associated not only with the unnecessary anxiety that is caused to the bird, but most likely with the lack of suitable habitats and the presence of competitors.

Raven diet

The diet of ravens is varied. They are predators by nature, but carrion plays a key role in their diet, mainly such large animals as deer and. For a long time the bird is able to feed dead fish, rodents and frogs. The raven is perfectly adapted to food-poor regions and eats everything it can catch or discover. In search of prey, it soars in the air for a long time, which is not typical for corvids. Hunts mainly game, not the size more hare, for example, on various rodents, lizards, snakes, birds.

Eats insects, shellfish, worms, sea ​​urchins and scorpions. On occasion, it can destroy someone else's nest by feeding on seeds, grains, and plant fruits. Crows often cause damage to farm crops. Another way of feeding is to be consumed by nesting eggs or young chicks. If necessary, the plant feeds on what a person leaves behind. A flock of ravens is found in almost every major city landfill.

Important! When there is an excess of food, the raven hides what is left from the meal in a secluded place or shares it with the flock.

During the hunt, the bird is very patient and is able to watch the hunt of another animal for hours in order to feast on the remains of its prey or track and steal the reserves it has made. When there is food abundance, different individuals living nearby can specialize in different types feed

American biologists observed such a picture in Oregon. The birds nesting in the neighborhood were divided into those who consumed plant foods, those who hunted gophers and those who collected carrion. In this way, competition was kept to a minimum, which allowed the birds to exist safely nearby.

Common raven- the largest bird not only in the corvid family, but also in the entire passerine order. Its body length is about 64 cm, and it can weigh up to 1.5 kg. Raven is easy to recognize by large sizes, general “raven” appearance and uniform black coloring with a metallic sheen. Noteworthy is the large and powerful beak of this bird and its unique voice - a guttural croak that has many shades and variations.

Throughout the year, crows stay in pairs. Hearing a hoarse “kru-kru” over the forest and looking around, you can almost always find the second bird with your eyes. Now crows have become the most common birds, and it’s rare to go out of town without seeing at least a couple of these birds. And there was a time when I specifically traveled 75 km from Moscow to look at the ravens nesting in an old spruce forest near the station. Golitsyno.

Raven nesting

Crows begin nesting earlier than all our birds, with the exception of crossbills and rock pigeons, which can lay eggs even in the middle of winter. IN middle lane they begin their spectacular performances already in January air games above the forest, and in March they begin to build new or repair old nests, which are sometimes used for many years. Nests are located in large trees, usually on high altitude, often not lower than 20 m on the ground, therefore difficult to reach for observation. In recent decades, near Moscow, some crows have begun to build nests on metal masts of high-voltage transmission lines. In the east, in the steppe regions, I found raven nests under the roofs of tall wooden buildings, and in the north - on rock ledges. There are known cases of these birds nesting on bell towers and city towers.

A raven's nest is very similar to a nest common crow, only bigger. The outside is made of dry, rather thick branches, and the inside is lined with wool. In central Russia, female crows lay their first eggs at the very beginning of March, and from then on they do not leave the nest. The male flies in from time to time to feed his brooding mate. A full clutch contains 3-7 eggs. They are greenish or grayish-bluish in color, with dark superficial and lighter deep spots scattered throughout. Externally, raven eggs are very similar to crow eggs, but noticeably larger. Their average size is 49.7×33.4 mm. Incubation lasts about 3 weeks. Young crows leave the nest at the end of May. Towards the end of the nesting cycle, the ground under the crow's nest is heavily soiled with white blotches of droppings. Here you can also find bird pellets, sometimes remnants of food brought by birds to their chicks, and, as a rule, at least 1-2 blue-black feathers they have lost.

Eating crow

Raven is a scavenger. Near slaughterhouses or at fishing and hunting grounds, these birds sometimes gather in large numbers. They are very brave predators. If a crow does not dare to attack an adult gray rat, then the raven fearlessly attacks her and kills her with several blows of her beak. You look, not even a couple of minutes have passed since the attack, and he is already carrying the killed rat to some secluded place where he will not be disturbed while eating. When, having had enough, the raven leaves this place, all that remains is blood-stained snow, trampled by its large paws. Usually he eats the entire animal without leaving a trace. Ravens also decide to attack larger prey, such as the sick or wounded. large birds and even for hares.

Traces of a raven when moving at a walk (on the left) and in leaps

When carrion appears in the forest, the raven often knows about it by the excited chirping of magpies or the croaking of crows. However, he is careful and does not rush to rich food, and descends from the tree only after he is convinced of complete safety. Despite its powerful beak, it is very difficult for him to peck through the strong skin of an elk or cow, so he begins to eat carrion after dogs or foxes gnaw through the skin, or if he himself discovers any wounds on the animal’s body. A raven will peck out the eyes of a dead sheep or dog, but it cannot do this of a large cow.

Raven pellets can be found not only under the nesting tree. Sometimes they can be found under trees and rocks where birds spend the night. They resemble crow pellets, which are found quite often, but in a raven they are larger - (6×2.2) - (4.3×2.7) cm. The pellets usually consist of the wool of eaten animals and bone fragments embedded in it. You often notice seeds of cultivated cereals in them. In the southern regions, there are raven pellets consisting entirely of some kind of fruit, for example, semi-digested ephedra berries.

The droppings of these birds can either be in the form of a semi-liquid, blurred white blot, or in the form of a thicker short “sausage” of a dark color, but covered with a white coating at one end - it all depends on the food eaten. The size of such a “sausage” is about 4.5x0.8 cm.

Raven paw print

It’s not at all difficult to find traces of a raven’s paws; you just have to go out of town and walk across a field or along the edge of a forest. Its paw prints are easy to spot various kinds individual characteristics. You can, for example, pay attention to the fact that the prints left by different ravens differ noticeably in size. As a rule, larger prints belong to males, and smaller ones belong to females. The male leaves an imprint (11.4×4.8) - (12.5×5), and the female - about 10.5×4 cm. The length of the claws on the middle fingers is up to 1.7, and on the hind fingers - 2 cm. Moves crows either take measured steps 16-20 cm long, or oblique leaps, placing one paw slightly in front of the other.

Jonathan Swift has lines that have something to do with the thieving representative of our fauna. The writer tells how one morning the chief secretary for secret affairs great empire Lilliput told Gulliver about the terrible disasters caused by the fierce decree of the emperor. The decree required that chicken eggs be broken only from the sharp end.

“This decree embittered the population to such an extent that... it was the cause of six uprisings, during which one emperor lost his life and another his crown... There are up to eleven thousand fanatics who went to death penalty for refusing to break eggs from the sharp end. Hundreds of huge works devoted to this issue have been published. However, the books of stupid people have long been banned, and the party itself is deprived of the right to hold public office.”

Swift is silent about how the crows lived in Lilliput. Meanwhile, according to the imperial decree, they should have been executed: the crows clearly gravitated towards the disgraced party of stupid people. For the eggs stolen from chicken coops were and are preferred by the feathered fanatics to be broken at the blunt end. Seagulls and other robbers, having climbed into someone else's nest, immediately crack open the eggs, and the crow is perhaps ashamed - it absorbs the contents of the egg far from the place of theft: the crow first transports the stolen goods. The cheat has no pockets; string bags and briefcases are not held in high esteem by her either. And bulky egg It's about to fall out of its beak. In order not to make a mistake, the crow punches a hole at the blunt end (it’s easier to do here), inserts the upper half of its beak into the hole and, holding the fragile food from below with the lower half of its beak, escapes from the chicken coop.

The Perm Pedagogical Institute decided to find out why chicken, crow and other eggs do not lie haphazardly in nests, but are folded with sharp ends inward. Only the blunt ends point outward or upward.

What is it for? Here's what it's all about. When the bird, clinging to the shell, incubates the clutch, the air in the lower part of the nest stagnates and the carbon dioxide content increases five to nine times. As you know, you can’t inhale carbon dioxide: embryos need oxygen. This is where the dog is buried - oxygen penetrates into the egg more easily from the blunt end: there are more microscopic pores here and there is usually an air sac under the shell. That is why eggs nest in a cup-shaped tray with their blunt ends facing outward: this makes it easier to take in oxygen.

To prevent the eggs from accidentally turning over, their center of gravity is shifted to the sharp end. Thanks to this, birds can turn eggs from side to side. And the whole process of incubation - some kind of motionless word - is in fact full of movement. Here is the naturalist’s description: “Through binoculars you can clearly see that there is noticeable movement in the nest. The bird rises a little and seems to half-stand for several moments, quickly moving its legs, causing its wings and whole body to tremble. These seemingly strange actions of the bird help to ventilate the nesting tray. It lasts from a few seconds to half a minute and is repeated so often that the bird, in fact, never sits quietly on the eggs.”

For the gray crow, ventilation takes seventeen days - until the chicks hatch. (They will spend another month in the nest, opening their beak every now and then). So as not to lose sports uniform, the female is “ventilating” for real. Leaving the nest in the care of dad, he will stretch, tidy up his feathers and exercise - fly over nearby trees or roofs. One way or another, the crow's nest does not remain unattended. It’s not for nothing that people say: the bird that doesn’t like its nest is stupid. And the crow is truly an avian genius. But more on that a little later.

IN Arkhangelsk region in the nests of hooded crows, an average of three chicks “open their mouths”, in the Moscow region - 4.8, and in Blagodnoe Krasnodar region- five chicks each require food.

V.A. Bakhmutov, who observed crow’s nests in the lower reaches of the Ob, noticed that the eggs laid first had a greenish-olive shell with clear specks. Then the colors weaken, and the color of the last eggs varies from pale green with barely noticeable specks to transparent blue. This diversity can probably be explained by the fact that the release of pigment in the female’s body decreases towards the end of the clutch. This means the crows are running out of steam. An interesting detail: the crow, the male, is usually born first. Is there some connection between the time of pipping, the sex of the chick and the color of the shell?

In general, it’s time to sort out the crow dyeing shop, and not get away with the phrase, they say, “the described species is interesting because, based on the color of the plumage, it falls into two groups - gray and black.” The black crow, as the name implies, is all black, and so much so that it has a metallic sheen. But the gray one also has a lot of dark things: head, throat, wings, tail, beak and legs. The black one chose the eastern regions of the country, the gray one - the western ones. Their hybrids are found in the Kazakh steppes and along the Yenisei. However, black crows also live in Central Europe.

In April, when all the birds of the raven family have offspring, you can sometimes find babies that have fallen from the nest, but are alive, under the trees. What to do with such yellowthroats? It all depends on his age. If this is a crow chick, the photo of which you see, it will not be difficult to get it out. But if he is much younger (only with stumps of feathers or completely naked), saving his life is fraught with certain difficulties.

At this age, the crow chick is not yet able to independently maintain the body’s heat balance. The mother warms the children, and if the spring turns out to be hot, then she cools them down. Therefore, if you have decided on the almost hopeless task of saving a newborn raven, you need to build him an incubator as soon as possible. This could be a small box (for shoes or cake) or a pot. The inside of this container should be lined with a soft cloth. Make sure that the new socket is covered with a light cloth, and place an incandescent lamp above it. You can replace it with a heating pad placed at the bottom of the box, but this measure can only be temporary, since heating from below is inorganic for the raven. If the chick is shaking, increase the temperature. And if he opens his beak and breathes frequently, remove the outer fabric and reduce the heating.

What to feed a crow chick at this tender age? Adults are practically omnivores, but babies require baby food. It should consist of 30-50% grated carrots. This component is not only rich in carotene, but also helps give the food a sufficiently moist consistency so that the baby swallows a piece without choking. Another 30% is protein. Ground low-fat cottage cheese, boiled yolks, porridge. Minced fish and meat are very useful for babies. Baby formula added to the food will provide your child with vitamins, but we must not forget to add crushed shells to the food raw eggs. This way the chick will fledge faster.

Second week of life

On the tenth day, the baby begins to develop the rudiments of future feathers. Thus, the raven chick no longer needs constant heating. Leave the lamp only overnight and turn it off during the day, but the temperature in the room should not be lower than +20 degrees C. Until the body is completely covered by the fluff, it is not recommended to remove the upper fabric from the nest. If in the first week you need to feed the chick every one and a half to two hours (with a break at night), then meals should become less frequent. You can teach the first command: emit a hoarse, loud “a” before feeding, so that the raven chick opens its beak.

When caring for ravens, it should be remembered that these birds defecate immediately during feeding, so before eating, the chick should be seated on a piece of newspaper. In the future, you need to accustom your pet to a place for the toilet. It is necessary to provide the bird with toys (preferably always new and shiny). Crows love to swim. Therefore, the chicks can be sprayed with a spray bottle, and when they learn to walk, give them a basin with warm water for water procedures. Little yellowthroats should not be given water, as water may enter the respiratory tract. In the first two weeks, limit yourself to bread soaked in water or milk. Then, when the raven chick learns to drink, always provide him with a container of fresh water. If the bird gets used to you, you can teach it to talk and also take it for walks to stretch its wings.