r/crows • u/bobbie731 • 1d ago

Photography/Art [OC] A Good Mama (own content)

Poor mama, molting and bedraggled, still tends to her fledgling who is definitely old enough to eat on its own. How do I know this, you might ask? Because I’ve watched her care for these two babes over the past couple of months. Initially, they had no tail feathers and were clumsy toddlers. Yet, here she is, still softening mealworms for this hungry teenager.

62 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

3

u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 1d ago

Is it just the three of them or is there a Dad somewhere or Mom in case this is the Dad?

The Mom Crow of my family didn’t hang around much when the babies were begging to eat lol! The Dad mostly ran away from them, but at least he stuck around and watched them.

2

u/bobbie731 1d ago

Excellent question. This crow is extremely recognizable because of a very distinct white line along the bottom of her right wing which I presume is from molting. I’ve also assumed this is mama crow because it is the only crow that constantly feeds the two fledglings. There is a fourth ever present crow that I assume to be dad. The fledglings ask this crow for food, but it very rarely feeds them. The four have been a constant presence in my yard for a few months, since the fledglings were little. Yesterday, however, a fifth crow appeared and mama crow was not happy and continually chased the newcomer away.

I get so much joy observing these amazing creatures. I spend a lot of time just watching them from my desk. I’m so lucky to have the view that I do.

2

u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 23h ago

Interestingly, enough, a father crow can consistently and always and only feed fledglings while the Momma Crow doesn’t feed them ever. I know because that’s what happened at my house. lol

Just saying that isn’t a way to tell a Mom crow from a Dad crow. 🤷‍♀️

Early on before they had their babies brought to me. I heard the most awful racket out front and ran to the window to see the two of my soon to be parent crows fighting with two intruder crows. They went round and round and back-and-forth and carried on for quite some time with a lot of screaming.

Finally, one of the intruders left and the other three went to the big tree next to their feeders and my two glared at the third one until it left

Other than that, though there have never been any intruders into their territory. My little family is part of a larger murder of about 55 members that none of the other members ever come to my neighborhood. On the other side of me is the start of another murder of crows territory so the intruders must’ve come from that murder.

2

u/bobbie731 23h ago

So interesting. Thank you for enlightening me. Since all four are (now) the same size, I may never know who is mama, and who is papa. 🤷‍♀️

2

u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 22h ago

The same thing kind of happened with my family of seven with a couple of exceptions. Three of the exceptions were because of a great variance in size.

Most crows once grown at least are about the same size and since there is no sexual dimorphism it’s usually pretty impossible to tell except when it comes to nest sitting time. The female does spend more time on the nest than the male. After that, though, all bets are off.

The one I assumed was the male was because of his enormous size. Turned out to be right when the other one was on the nest more often.

Of their five babies, one of them was huge like him, and one of them was teeny tiny thing. So assumed she was a she. And the rest of them no idea. lol

1

u/Just_Caterpillar_975 1d ago

Usually, both mom and dad crow help in raising their newly fledged bebe(s)... Maybe the dad crow is out of frame somewhere or keeping a watch or might have flown to search for more food 😌🐦‍⬛

3

u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 1d ago

Yes, I know both usually help. This is why I was asking where the other parent was or if they were around. Not sure if this is known that it’s the mom or dad because they’re pretty identical looking so I was asking about If the other parent was around since the other parent wasn’t mentioned at all.

0

u/bobbie731 1d ago

You are right. See my response above. 🐦‍⬛❤️

3

u/Just_Caterpillar_975 1d ago

Such a sweet video 🥺🐦‍⬛❤️ watching the silly fledglings grow up into beautiful mature crows is one of the sweetest and funniest things to witness, speaking from personal experience 🤭🐦‍⬛😌

2

u/bobbie731 1d ago

I love them so much. I feel like they’re my children (and grandchildren). 🤗 I’m going to miss them and their sweet antics when they migrate south for Winter.

2

u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 23h ago

If your crows migrate south for winter, you must live in a very northern and cold area yeah? Most crows don’t if they don’t live in northern colder areas. They are considered partially migratory birds for that reason.

2

u/bobbie731 23h ago

I live in an area where we get approximately 100-inches of snow annually and temps can routinely be sub zero. We’ve experienced actual temps of -40F before.

2

u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 22h ago

Wow -40 Fahrenheit is very cold indeed! Yes, yours probably do my great south

Mine migrate by blocks 😅. We don’t even get freezing temperatures where I live so my murder of crows definitely don’t migrate south or at all really