A Murder of Crows, Red-wings on the attack

A "murder of crows": the gathering of American Crows and the huge racket then ensues when they harass a potential enemy (especially during breeding season). When I hear it, I rush over to see what they have found. Crows are expert in the discovery of a lurking hawk or owl, hiding in dense tree foliage. Thanks to the crows, I have found many hard-to-find raptors but it's not always a rare predator that causes all the ruckus. Sometimes I see nothing and have to conclude that all the outrage is directed at me.  Unknowingly, I have passed too close to a crow nest or fledgling. This morning was even more of a letdown; it was a cat. Crow outrage at the presence of a stalking feline is however quite justified. Outdoor cats kill literally millions of birds; bird-hunting is apparently built into the DNA of Felis catus.

The irony of the moment was enhanced by the presence of several Red-winged Blackbirds dive-bombing the Crows and trying to drive them away; Crows and their Blue Jay cousins are notorious nest robbers themselves and the Red-wings know it!

Red-wings can be very intolerant of large intruders. Just yesterday, I saw one harassing a perched Osprey right near the Osprey nest platform. Osprey do not normally predate passerines or passerine nests but apparently can be mistaken for more dangerous large raptors. Usually the male Red-wings do the dive-bombing but this morning I was attacked by a squawking female as I sauntered down the edge-of-the-marsh trail; there must have been a nearby nest with young or fledglings in the dense brush that borders the trail. After a bit, the racket attracted a curious tailless male -- probably the "owner" of the plot whose territorial and amorous exertions had caused him to lose his steering mechanism; he made a halfhearted effort to chase me away before taking off. 

A Northern Mockingbird has been hanging around the place, probably a singleton from one of the nearby Mocker territories on Bay or Weesuck Avenues. A small mixed flock of males and female House Finches suggests that this species is recovering from the epidemic of disease that decimated its populations a few years ago. House Finches have a checkered history on Long Island and in the Eastern US in general. As a southwestern species, this bird was not even mentioned in the classic Peterson and other Eastern guides so local birders were calling them Purple Finches, the closest match that was illustrated in their field guides. But they were not Purple Finches which do occur here but mostly in migration and are, at best, very rare breeders in the Pine Barrens. In contrast, the new birds were suddenly numerous at feeders and in populated areas generally, nesting in garden shrubbery or even in flower pots or dense ivy. When they were finally revealed as House Finches, the speculation was that these birds, which first appeared on Long Island, stemmed from a pet dealer who released his illegal stock of the bird to avoid arrest (it is illegal to keep native birds in captivity). The birds, obviously relishing their freedom, found the inhabited habitats of LI to their liking and bred furiously, eventually colonizing the island, New York City and the whole Northeast. As the populations spread west, they eventually met up and merged with the burgeoning Western populations which were spreading north and east from their original Southwestern strongholds, forming a single coast-to-coast, Canada-to-Mexico population. However they got here, they are so well entrenched, even with their health problems, that it is hard not to think of them as native birds.

Eric Salzman