Counting Crows (and Their Relatives): A View from the Back
by Cathy Jefferies
Due to technical difficulties beyond my control, Jonathan and I had to come to the
October meeting in Columbia two up. I took advantage of the ride to enjoy the scenery and
practice a bit of high-speed bird watching.
In some respects, high-speed bird watching is not that different from regular bird
watching. Even when you're not moving, the bird often is. However, since it is somewhat
impractical to use binoculars on the back of a motorcycle, high-speed birding works best
with birds that are robin-sized or larger. Corvids, or members of the crow family, fit nicely
into this group. On a ride from the Bay Area to the Sierras, it is possible to see as many as
five different species of corvids.
Northern California is home to two blue jays. That is, we have two species of jays
that are blue. True Blue Jays, like the ones on Toronto's baseball caps, are an eastern species,
not usually found west of the Rockies. The western counterpart to the Blue Jay is the
Steller's Jay, a deep blue bird with a black head and crest. Look for Steller's Jay in the
Sierran conifer forests and in areas of oak and Foothill Pine (formerly called Digger Pine) in
the Coast Range. The Scrub Jay is a blue bird with a grayish-white breast and no crest. As the
name suggests, you can see Scrub Jays in areas of chaparral and oak scrub, and around towns
in the Bay Area and Central Valley.
The Central Valley is also the place to spot Yellow-billed Magpies. This black and
white bird is easy to recognize, because its tail is almost as long as its body. Yellow-billed
Magpies live only in California, from the northern Sacramento Valley down to the hills
behind Santa Barbara. If your ride takes you across the Sierras to Nevada or points farther
east, you will find a different species, the Black-billed Magpie.
The last two corvids you will most often encounter while riding in Northern
California are the Crow and the Raven. Bird books will tell you that the way to distinguish
Crows from Ravens is to look at their beaks and tails. Ravens' beaks are larger and heavier
than Crows', and the tail of a flying Crow has a rounded tip, whereas the tail of a flying Raven
comes to a point in the middle. Ravens are also larger than Crows. I once saw a Raven flying
near a Red-tailed Hawk, and was surprised to see that the Raven was almost as big as the
Hawk. When riding on the back of a motorcycle, however, the easiest way to tell a Crow
from a Raven is by where it is and who it's with. Crows are more gregarious than Ravens, and
tend to be less disturbed by human development. A solitary, large black bird soaring over
grasslands in the Coast Range, out in the desert or up in the Sierras is probably a Raven. A
flock of twenty or thirty birds in a residential area, or a field in the Central Valley, are Crows.
Because Jays, Magpies, Crows and Ravens are large and fairly distinctive, they are good
birds to watch for while riding on the back of a motorcycle. Also, corvids are not migratory birds, so
you can look for them any time you ride out from the Bay Area. And if you watch diligently, you may
be lucky enough to do what I have only done once or twice, and see all five species in a single day.
Back to the Norcal Home Page...
All material on this page Copyright © The BMW Club of Northern
California, 1996. All rights reserved.