It's called "allopreening," and it's common among crow family members. I have
some photos and a little video of it at
https://get.google.com/albumarchive/101683745969614096883/album/AF1QipOTOn8uYT5okqlVFuupJF3oZ9GirfXeONgUKOYY
All members of the genus Corvus allopreen, so far as I know. Oddly, none of the
jays do. When I worked on Florida Scrub-Jays I noticed that they could really
have used allopreening. In the winter they would get ticks engorged on the back
of their heads where an individual cannot groom. And, it appeared that the
ticks carried important diseases, too. So they could have benefitted from
allopreening.
Kevin
Kevin J. McGowan
Project Manager
Distance Learning in Bird Biology
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
k...@cornell.edu
607-254-2452
Do you know about our other distance-learning opportunities? Visit Bird
Academy, https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/courses/ to see our list of courses.
-Original Message-
From: bounce-123607715-3493...@list.cornell.edu
On Behalf Of John and Fritzie
Blizzard
Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2019 11:15 PM
To: CAYUGABIRDS-L
Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Crow relationship Union Springs
This Mother's Day a.m. I saw a crow in our choke cherry tree & assumed it was
an adult from the nest in the nearby spruce trees.
Here, let me say that only once in the last mo. have I heard any cawing from
any crows so I presume they are quiet during nesting so as to not provoke any
smaller birds into attacking them.
Almost immediately, another crow joined the first & they seemed to really
snuggle closely together in the steady rain. I noticed the one on the right
seemed to be doing something to the head of the other. They both turned so they
were sideways to me. The one on the right appeared to be grooming the feathers
on the top of the head of the one on the left. I could see, with binoculars,
that the feathers were definitely being lifted up & then were smoothed back
down as the grooming continued.
This continued at least 5 min. & was quite interesting to watch. WHAT was going
on??? Anyone have an answer? I have no idea if the birds were mates or family
members since for many yrs. a family of 3 to 7 has faithfully come to check
out what compost I throw on the garden. Seems too soon for the eggs to have
hatched & have a bird the size of an adult already.
Just another mystery of Nature.
Fritzie,
Union Springs, where it's wet & getting wetter!
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