Crow with hawk-like markings? (21 Viewers)

[PeterMiller]

 

[Bewick]

Do you mind giving us the date and location?

 

[PeterMiller]

West Vancouver, BC, Canada
10th December 2023

 

[rkj]

Very weird bird. Any other photos at all?

 

[PeterMiller]

Just this video from which the screenshot was taken. iCloud Photos - Apple iCloud

 

[Mike Earp]

Just this video from which the screenshot was taken. iCloud Photos - Apple iCloud

Just an unusually marked American Crow

 

[dantheman]

Are those markings the same as when feather growth is interrupted temporarily - I forget the name for the process, but you occasionally see ringers reporting bars on birds tails etc, (EDIT: Stress bars?)

That it is white on a black bird is more noticeable perhaps, and it is known that crows can show pale/leucistic patches -shows the weakness here.

??

 

[rkj]

Just an unusually marked American Crow

I would say very unusually marked, but I think this must be right.

Are those markings the same as when feather growth is interrupted temporarily - I forget the name for the process, but you occasionally see ringers reporting bars on birds tails etc, (EDIT: Stress bars?)

That it is white on a black bird is more noticeable perhaps, and it is known that crows can show pale/leucistic patches -shows the weakness here.

Surely the feathers are not all growing simultaneously, such that stress bars would all line-up as seen here.

 

[johnallcock]

Surely the feathers are not all growing simultaneously, such that stress bars would all line-up as seen here.

The wing & tail feathers grow simultaneously on chicks in the nest, before fledging. This is the reason that this feature is useful for ringers/banders - where the fault bars line up like this, it is an indication that the feathers grew simultaneously, and provide evidence that the bird is in its first year. It's usually the result of insufficient food during feather growth, perhaps during a period of bad weather. But it is unusual to see fault bars as clearly marked as this.

 

[_pauls]

I'm not making an ID in any way shape or form but is that bill not usual for a crow? Seems strangely long and thin and slightly curved for a "crow" of any form - especially in the last frame that the video lands on. NB I realise that the crow has something (worm?) in its bill which may contribute to this but I'm not entirely sure that is the only factor.

My first impression (no offence to the OP) from the still photo was that this was CGI/AI creation with such a perfectly defined "fault line" and I'm not sure my view has changed much.