LANCASTER'S CROW AND RAVENS

      One mid-June afternoon, while doing errands in New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I noticed a family group of eight American crows flying about from buildings to a row of staghorn sumac trees, and back again, as if playing a game.  Watching them, I thought about the four species of crows I have seen in Lancaster County over the years.  

     Various species of the crow family are adaptable and adjusted well to the human-made fields, suburbs and shopping areas we created.  These related birds are intelligent, black all over and utter similar calls, sometimes making them tough to identify.

     The southern population of American crows nests across much of the United States.  In spring and summer, I see several pairs of them in farmland and suburbs foraging for food and raising young in tall trees in both built habitats.  Later, I see some of the family groups foraging for food together in the fields where they ingest grain, seeds, invertebrates and anything else edible.  

     These crows' cawing is loud and clear.  They attack hawks and owls, in the air and perched in trees in defense of their young.  And in autumn, they drift south for the winter.         

     In October, hordes of northern American crows, that rear young in Canada's forests, come south to the States to winter amidst a greater food supply of corn kernels in harvested fields, acorns on lawns and in woods, and most anything else edible, including feeding out of dumpsters.  

     These northern crows gather in nightly roosts in trees in cities, or on buildings in cities or shopping malls, or in large, planted stands of tall spruce trees, all places where they can shrink from cold, winter winds.  

     Each winter morning, noisy rivers of these northern crows pour out of their roosts and flow out in all directions.  They are exciting to see and hear.  Flocks of them forage in fields for much of each day, and by mid-afternoon, they are pouring back in long lines to their nightly perches, which is another sight to see, and hear.  They gather at their roosts, fly about them restlessly for a while, amid much loud and boisterous cawing, but, finally, settle down on their perches for the night. 

     Although fish crows live permanently by rivers and bays, some of them live inland.  I sometimes hear them cawing nasally here in Lancaster County, including in New Holland.  They are much like American crows, but a bit smaller and slimmer, and utter a nasal cawing, with which I can identify them. 

     Common ravens are the largest members of the crow family.  They are somewhat like American crows, but larger, chunkier and have a "beard" of feathers on their throats.  And their cawing is much deeper, and more raucous than that of the American crows. 

     Common ravens traditionally nest in remote wooded, mountainous areas, and build their large, bulky cradles of sticks, twigs and grass in tall trees, or in crevices of cliffs.  But today, some pairs of ravens are nesting in tall trees and abandoned quarry walls closer to civilization, thereby increasing their populations.

     Ravens are scavengers like crows, but they also are predators, killing small, vulnerable creatures to consume, or feed to their young.  Ravens soar like hawks, which is one way to identify them.  I have seen ravens soaring high in the sky on out-stretched, flat wings just like hawks.

     Crows and ravens are adaptable, intelligent and opportunistic birds that are highly successful.  They live and raise young in wild places, and in civilization where they take advantage of food and shelter sources.  They, as a family, are easy to identify, and are interesting to watch going about their daily business.