I was pleased to see the crow, as I haven’t noticed many of them this summer.
The menu of a carrion crow includes dead animals, but also insects, grains and live chicks and eggs from nest raids. Crows are startlingly intelligent. Corvids, members of the crow family, can make tools, solve problems and work as a group. It is said that scientists rate the crow as having the intelligence of a seven-year-old human.
Whilst many crows are solitary, it is not unheard of for them to form groups (called a ‘murder of crows’) as they can form strong relationships. Last summer, we had a family of five black and white crows. The young crows obviously stayed with their parents all summer, before making their own way in the world. The white patches can happen when they don’t get enough protein and is called leucism, as opposed to albinism in which they would usually be all white with red eyes.