Recently been seeing Crows with white tips in their wings does anyone have any idea what that is? I just saw another in the Garden.
-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Crows with White tips on their wings (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Euan Buchan
- Start date
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Quite common in Carrion Crow, I think its a juvenile feature normally lost after moulting, so you don't see them year-round. Good examples here:
http://morgithology.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/white-winged-crows.html
John
http://morgithology.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/white-winged-crows.html
John
AlfArbuthnot
Well-known member
Juveniles moult their wings after a year, so they would have these white-marked feathers year-round, until their second summer. So it would be possible to see it at any time of year. Although, of course, if it leads to lower survival then it would get less common in the population as the winter wore on, and be rarest in spring.
It's been suggested that it might be due to an urban diet being deficient in something, but I don't buy that, otherwise it would affect adults the same, and most crows and other species. It might just be a recessive feature that survives better in urban areas because they are safer from predators and starvation.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
On top of all that's been said already, crows flying across the sun, for example, also often show pale (if not white) flight feathers in photographs. Though possibly more so in winter with a low sun.
Similar threads
