Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 12:39:13 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: JAMES FELLEY Subject: Fledgling Fish Crows at the National Zoo Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline There was an excellent fledgling show at the Wetland Exhibit of the National Zoo yesterday. At least one family of Fish Crows had recently fledged their young. The stars were the recently fledged babies, still with pink corners to their mouths. They obviously had not been out of the nest long, as they had not yet mastered the art of perching. There were at least 3 babies, each permitting very close approach (to the alarm of their parents). As they flew around, blundering into the shrubs and trees, they consistently picked thin little branches as their perches, then grew wide-eyed and alarmed as the twigs swooned under the weight. It was a scream to watch. Some ID notes on the crows: This may have been an extended family, as there were several adults. All were giving the standard 'uh-uh' call, among other calls. None of the calls had the guttural 'crr-aw' I associate with Common Crows. The parents were all in advanced wing and tail molt. It seems to me that molt timing may be a good way to ID local crows, depending on the season. The Common Crows were done with their molt by mid-summer. The Fish Crows seem to be in the midst of theirs now. Jim Jim Felley Smithsonian Institution felleyj@si.edu ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================