Amsterdam 2018. Carrion Crow. (1 Viewer)

[Cormac]

Photos taken in Amsterdam in Apr 2018. Is this a Carrion Crow? Any assistance greatly appreciated.

 

[Butty]

Does it go 'caaaa' or 'prruk'?

 

[Cormac]

I have no idea. I only spotted the photo as I was tidying up some files.

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,
interesting bird imo. Tfs!

First: it isnt a juvenile Common Raven (the one that is the hardest to identify. See othe posts here on BF. Thanks to Tom again!) or a juvenile Rook (wrong bill-shape and with much caveat wrong head shape). Note date.
Therefore its a Carrion Crow, I agree with Butty (but as we all are well aware its hard at least to describe bird sounds with words).

But is it a pure Carrion Crow or a Carrion x Hooded Crow hybrid? Its easy imo to see indication/influence of a Hooded in your bird:

• pale centers with a dark margin to some upperpart feathers, giving them a "sequins-effect". Yes, pure Carrion Crwos have them too. But I still got the feeling, that birds with a more evident/clearer/pronounced "sequins-effect" are more common in the zone of integration (around Ziesar and NE-Germany) than in SW-Germany (around Mannheim)
• it seems to have a paler division on the head ghosting the dark hood of a Hooded Crow
• some feathers seems to be paler (grey?)

But: all these features are exagerrated or even solely the result of:

• strong/harsh light
• the birds appearantly poor condition
• ruffled feathers
• an extremly slight overexposure
• an aberrant coloured plumage (white parts of feathers

With location and the birds poor condition in mind I think its a pure Carrion Crow. But please note the other threads about this topic here on BF.
But I must admit that my answer would be different, if you have seen this bird in the contact-zone. Interesting bird for me. Tfs!

edit: its this thread: Hooded/carrion crow hybrid? Cottbus, Germany and thanks to Henning,and Mike too!

 

[Cormac]

Many thanks Butty and Alexander.