Spring has sprung, and around here, the crows are busy gathering materials for their nests. It’s fun to watch them maneuver on the ground and in the air with their mouths stuffed full of grass or twigs or whatever else looks useful to them. They have that,’don’t bother me, I’m busy’ air about them, and don’t fly away so quickly when approached by clumsier, land-bound bipeds.
Like many social animals, crow offspring stay with their parents for a few years and help raise their younger siblings. Even when they move on and are no longer living with them, they will come back for visits and help out with finding food and predator defense.
Crow parents mate for life, and their families stick together too, especially during the breeding season and summer months. In the winter, large groups of crows forage for food and roost together at night. Seems like the best of both worlds: having a community to help with food finding and defense in the winter when times are harder, and then breaking up into families to provide more devoted attention to offspring when food is easier and the weather’s not so great a threat.
Kevin McGowan studies crows in the Ithaca area around Cornell in upstate New York (where the winters are brutal) and despite years of observation and banding, he’s still not certain how far crow offspring travel away to create new territories for themselves. It’s hard to study animals that can fly when you can’t.
Go outside and look around. If you pay attention, I bet you’ll find crows and other birds busy getting ready for their new families.