A General Bird Question

Ok. I live in CNY, we have a very large murder of crows...10's of thousands, who roost overnight here.

Right now, it is what I call crow 30...they are all flying in for the night.

I just watched one land on the tip of a tree branch, it did not sag at all...how can that be? If I put a 3-5pound weight on the same tip, it would sag. Why is that?

a reply to: theatreboy

well a crow has hollow bones and weighs between 300 and 600 grams. a pound is 454g so the average crow weighs 3- 5x less than your suggested weight.
en.m.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: theatreboy

It is a Murder Mystery!

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Looks like BlueJacket answered already, but crows are really light birds, unlike their raven conspirators.

a reply to: theatreboy

Crows don't weigh 5 pounds, rarely do they weigh 3.

Average is a pound.

Google

a reply to: theatreboy


ya... lotsa birds are crazy lightweight for the size that they appear.

Next time ur at the zoo scope out the aviary where they let you pick up the little Conures and small parrots and stuff, if it wasn't for their feet clutching, you would barely notice them on your shoulder.

Now a big ol bad ass crow, can't say I ever held one of them. Had a whole pack of them surround me in the woods one time... but that's a different story.

originally posted by: theatreboy
Ok. I live in CNY, we have a very large murder of crows...10's of thousands, who roost overnight here.

Right now, it is what I call crow 30...they are all flying in for the night.

I just watched one land on the tip of a tree branch, it did not sag at all...how can that be? If I put a 3-5pound weight on the same tip, it would sag. Why is that?

Just put a bird on it.
www.youtube.com...

are you sure they're crows?

usually its grackles and starlings that make mass flocks.

they're slightly smaller.

all the Ravens are practicing for the playoff game this week

a reply to: ElGoobero
I have seen some very large groups of crows. Even watched as adult crows communicated with one another at a territory border to escort a younger crow through them without being harassed.

Nature is full of wondrous things when you pay attention to them.

Murders of crows tend to be much larger in the winter, and family groups will often come together from a long way off to roost together. Some of these groups can be a consolidation from as far away as 30 miles. In the past crows would only do this outside of urban areas, but in the last 10 or so years they have started to form these massive murders in urban areas as well.

some citations.
www.outdoornews.com...

www.telegraph.co.uk...

A: Who is the first aviator to fly over the North Pole??

A: Who is the aviator who flew into the hole in the Antarctic ice sheet and found the hollow earth dwellers??

A: Who is the winner for the Medal of Honor in both WWI and WWII??!!

“I’ll take things I don’t know for 500, Alex”!



(See “hollow bones” answer)

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Oh ! Oh ! Oh !

Did General Admiral Byrd fly into the hollow earth, and met dwellers ?
Sounds like a wonderful story !

Crows are awesome birds... Even their cawing is a manifestation of an articulate intelligence, as opposed to cockatoos that sit high in a tree screeching "Hey, I'm over here." "Hey, I'm over here too." "But I'm over here." "Well, I'm over here." "Me too, I'm over here." for hours on end... they're the equivalent of someone with downs syndrome.

And those incessant little birds that decide to squawk "Hey, it's morning." "Yes, it is morning." "I like the morning." "I like the morning too." "Did you realise it's morning?" "Yes, you just said it was morning." "Oh, well it's morning." "I know, I like the morning." annoying you as you try to sneak in that last hour before the alarm sounds it's relentless and obnoxious drone, forcing you to eventually get up, stagger to the toilet and despise those monstrosities perched up there, happy just to see the darkness lift and the day begin to change from a dimly lit atmosphere to a glowing stinking hot day...

I like crows.

I love our crows. They are good luck. One of the most intelligent and interesting animals on the planet.

a reply to: theatreboy

What or where is CNY?

I've never seen that designation before...

originally posted by: Riffrafter
a reply to: theatreboy

What or where is CNY?

I've never seen that designation before...

Central New York I thinks

thanks for linques, Dubious, I never know Crows mass-gathered like that.

a reply to: TrustedTruth

I like crows.

I don't. I respect them for their intelligence but I hate them.

They pull up corn, they harass my cats, they chase red tailed hawks, and their cawing is simply unnerving.

Hell, I even saw one harass a huge ass buzzard and a 6 foot black snake.

But mockingbirds aren't scared of them. Surprised the hawks are.

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: TrustedTruth

I like crows.

I don't. I respect them for their intelligence but I hate them.

They pull up corn, they harass my cats, they chase red tailed hawks, and their cawing is simply unnerving.

Hell, I even saw one harass a huge ass buzzard and a 6 foot black snake.

But mockingbirds aren't scared of them. Surprised the hawks are.

Luckily we don't have any of those here.. well, we have cats, but crows turn into feathery messed up cat food if they come near my Greebos..

They just sit on high giving me that look, you know.. a sort of pondering malicious intent.. that is when they're not dissecting a garbage bin full of KFC scraps, meticulously opening the package to get to the left over chickeny foulness.

Now if you want a bird that harasses you for no apparent reason, try the willy wagtail. Tiny rodents with wings, that for some reason swoop down on me as I wander by under a tree, with an incessant desire to kill me, that sends me into a quivering mess of a hulking ugly bloke. Little bastards.. And they do their chirpy dance, and wag their tails as they flit from one spot to the next, mocking me with their delirious manner.. Now I hate them... But they're too fast to whack with a big stick. :/

a reply to: Nothin

General? Admiral?? I have never studied military history!!

The ancient aliens folk say it is true (North Pole). The Antarctic is a mess. Some of the tales seem too fantastic to be believed but then, what are they based on??

Quantamagazine.org has an article up on what is below the earth’s surface on their main page. I didn’t see a hollow earth but there are mountains and the like down and the crust rides on top of that (will provide a couple of like links to a couple articles on the subject when off my phone).

Back to birds though... it got me wondering about “thunderbirds” and if they have a size limit??

Hummmm...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Sometimes, when penguins are walking: they look like little roly-poly General birds...

Hummmm...

The common airborne skyrodent has experience in reality, the common groundborne civilmonkey has no experience in reality.