JAYS AND MAGPIES: Family Corvidae [ 42.9 ] 



recorded it from Camp Harney as americanus and reported eggs taken 

 May 4, 1877. Since that time, many records of the Western Crow have 

 been published, and our own notes refer to every county in the State. 



Although this western counterpart of the common crow is widely 

 distributed, it is most at home along the timbered banks of the larger 

 streams, where it nests in the cottonwoods and willows, usually build- 

 ing well above the ground. Eggs are laid in early May. Extreme dates 

 are April 2.0 and June 9. The young are out of the nest in late June and 

 early July. 



After the nesting season, the birds wander about the country feeding 

 along the stream banks and irrigation ditches and exploring the forests 

 or sage-clad hills for food. In August the clans gather in flocks that 

 increase in size until late fall, when winter roosts number thousands of 

 individuals that remain during the winter and begin to break up in 

 February or March as mating begins. From these great roosts the birds 

 range out over the countryside in somewhat definite flight lines. They 

 leave just before sunrise spreading out in flights like spokes in a wheel. 

 In the afternoon the return flight commences, and for an hour or more 

 before sunset they pour back in a number of waving noisy black lines, 

 not to the roost, but to a point some distance from it. The assembly is 

 a noisy and conspicuous performance, seemingly designed to call every- 

 one's attention to the birds, but as darkness falls the entire group flies 

 quietly away to the chosen roost. 



The largest roost is on an island in the Snake River near Ontario, 

 where a large portion of the crow population of that and tributary 

 valleys gathers to spend the winter months. From this roost the fly ways 

 extend up and down the Snake River, up the Malheur to the westward, 

 and up the Payette and Weiser to the eastward. The population varies 

 seasonally and is usually at its peak about December i. In some winters 

 it has reached an estimated total of 50,000 birds, and in others only a 

 small fraction of that number. There is a similar but smaller roost on 

 an island in the Columbia near Portland, and still smaller local roosts 

 occur near Astoria, at various points in the Willamette Valley, and at 

 Roseburg. 



Northwestern Crow: 



Corvus brachyrhynchos caurinus Baird 



DESCRIPTION. "Black, upper parts glossed with dull violet. Length: 16-17, wing 

 10.10-11.50, tail 5.90-7.00, exposed culmen 1.60-1.90." (Bailey) Nest: Made of 

 sticks, sometimes mud, lined with cedar bark. Eggs: 4 or 5, like those of Western 

 Crow but smaller. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from Kodiak Island south to Puget Sound, Wash- 

 ington, along coast. Winters in about same area. In Oregon: Straggler to Columbia 

 River in winter. 



