Hooded crows

[fredpuli47]

My, admittedly old, reference books suggest that the hooded crow is a bird of the highlands and other such desolate mountainous areas. Yet, for the first time, I've noticed quite a number feeding in the garden here, 8 miles south of , definitely non-mountainous non-desolate, flat Cambridge. Has the bird extended its range or was it always a bird of this area?

[redman41]

If the birds you are referring to are not black with grey under-plumage then they are not Hooded Crows. They are more or less the same birds as Carrion Crows which you may have. Are you confusing Hooded Crows with Jackdaws ?
Crows tend to be around in pairs but Jackdaws tend to flock together.

[burnhal]

I would definitely say you are seeing Jackdaws!! All black but with a grey nape and smaller than crows. Hoodies are the same size as crows but with grey backs,nape and belly. I used to live in scotland around the Lomond area which is more or less the border between crows and hoodies and often used to see both in the same field. They will interbreed where they overlap.

[madmaggot]

Is this what you are seeing, fred?

http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/hooded-crow:corv us-corone-photo-401.html

[swotty]

Good link madmaggot - We live in North Lincs and Hooded Crows visit the beaches on the coast - Only the odd one, and there have been reported hybird / crosses in other places - If madmaggot's link is the bird you've seen, then that's a good spot plenty of local birdwatchers will be very interested - Cheers - Wotty

[fredpuli47]

I think I'd recognise a jackdaw, if only because there's a pair of them nesting in a chimney on this very house ! LOL(Yes, I know. At least the chimney isn't used ) There's quite a few pairs of jackdaws around here and, to add to the identification,at least one pair eats on the same lawn at the same time as these birds, outside here. The lawn is quite a corvid feeding station; rooks, crows, magpies, jackdaws (oddly, no jays recently).That's really what prompted the question, seeing some odd grey crows was out of the ordinary. I don't remember noticing any on the farm before, but, on the other hand, nobody here was throwing out food for birds (peanuts) and so they may have been around but not close.

They are definitely hooded crows. Madmaggot's pictures confirm that.

Thanks. Interesting. I'll tell the village nature watch (who may already know, but just the same )