Pennsylvania Game News - October 2021 - 62

herons, gulls, ducks, plovers, rails, terns,
and double-crested cormorants. They
even will nest in heron colonies and raid
their nests, and when they find a good
source of food, they may cache it to eat
later or feed to their nestlings.
If they migrate at all, it is only to food
sources such as in landfills, feed lots, and
sites with accessible dumpsters. They
usually join winter roosts of American
crows, but return to their breeding
grounds as early as February in Pennsylvania.
Fish
crows are monogamous and have
no courtship displays, although Kevin
McGowan, who studied them in Florida,
wrote in his Birds of the World account
that he observed " a nest-building
crow with a stick in its bill flying slowly
with stiff wings in exaggerated 'butterfly
fashion' circling (its) nest site completely
before going to nest, repeated several
times. " It wasn't determined whether the
behavior was a courtship display. However,
mated pairs do preen the back of
each other's heads.
Both sexes build their nest in tall
trees as high as 80 feet. It takes them
about nine days, although they start several
nests before lining and finishing one.
They may use the same tree sometimes
for years, but they always build a new
nest of deciduous tree sticks and line it
with soil, red cedar, or grapevine bark,
hair and/or pine needles. The finished
product is about 19 inches across and 5
inches deep.
Here in Pennsylvania, fish crows
might build nests as early as April 11
or as late as June 29. They have a small
territory around their nest tree, and occasionally
will breed semi-colonially
among several other fish crow pairs with
62
nests within 100 yards of each other. The
male fish crow defends the nest site from
American crows, but he will often allow
other fish crows to approach the nest.
The female fish crow lays two to six
pale bluish-green eggs, marked with
brown, that she incubates while the male
guards and feeds her, bringing food in
his throat, not his bill, for his mate and,
later, the nestlings.
Both mob possible nest predators,
most notably hawks, raccoons, owls, and
humans. After the eggs are incubated for
16 to 19 days, the naked, helpless young
emerge and take 32 to 40 days to mature
and fledge.
Fish crows have not been studied as
much as American crows, but are similarly
curious, intelligent and social birds
that will play with objects they find.
However, they can be aggressive toward
each other. For instance, a fish crow at a
garbage site was observed pulling the tail
of another fish crow to drive it off.
More serious fights begin with threatening
posturing, during which they arch
their necks, hold their heads forward and
point their bills downward. They spread
their tails, slightly spread their wings or
keep them close to their bodies with their
wing tips down, and walk sideways toward
their opponent. After fights, they
perform an appeasement display consisting
of open-mouthed begging calls,
lowering their bodies and quivering their
extended wings, and they're believed
to always give in to American crows in
fights.
Although I can easily see and hear
fish crows in State College and on the
Penn State campus, where they roost in
the winter and breed locally, I have yet to
see or hear them in Blair County, where
I reside. But other folks have. Fish crows
have come to the county by way of the
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2021

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