Bill’s Beak

April 8, 2026April 7, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 3 Comments

Bill is one of my more recent crow acquaintances. As you can see from his photograph, he’s pretty easy to pick out from other crows because of his spectacular beak.

The overgrowth of the top beak is caused by a virus — AKD or Avian Keratin Disorder. An over-production of keratin causes the beak to keep growing beyond normal dimensions. The disease is mostly likely caused by a virus (Poecivirus) and was first noticed among chickadees in the 1990’s. The beak overgrowth can be fatal in advanced cases, if the bird can no longer preen and/or feed efficiently.

Bill is one of the luckier AKD-afflicted birds. When I first “met” him earlier this spring, it was apparent that he was doing well, despite the overgrown beak. He has a mate and a couple of younger crows (probably fledglings from previous springs) as part of his entourage.

All the same, I worried about Bill.

I remembered that I had taken a photo of a crow last summer with a somewhat hooked bill. I’d seen that crow close to the area where Bill lives, so the chances were good that the crow in the summer photo and Bill are one and the same bird. I searched through my files and was disturbed to see that the beak did look noticeably smaller back then.

Bill last summer

Bill this March

Several of the crows I have become attached to over the years have had, or continue to have, physical challenges. These differences help tell them apart from other crows — like Earl with his bent leg and Echo with her one blind eye — but they’re also a cause for ongoing worry about their well-being.

Bill, however, seems to have solved his own problem.

As soon as we got back from our week away in March, I did my usual tour of all the local crows to check in on everyone.

When I got to Bill’s area, I was confused; there was a crow who looked and acted exactly like Bill, but with a much less hooked beak.

It HAD to be Bill.

So I tried to get as close a shot as I could of the tip of his beak, and, sure enough, you can see that it’s slightly rough where the end has somehow snapped off.

Below: Bill, with his newly streamlined beak, and his mate, Irene.

Side Note: I usually give my crow couples alliterative names (Marvin & Mavis, Earl & Echo, Fred & Florence, Dennis & Dolly … you get the picture …), but Bill and Irene go together in my mind. This is because my parents’ best friends when I was young were Bill and Irene, and they were Aunty Irene and Uncle Bill to me.

Bill (left) and Irene (right)

I’m not sure how Bill managed to get a “beak job” done. I’d never noticed him working at the beak to wear it down, so it’s unclear if the modification was a skilful operation or just a happy accident. However it happened, it’s great timing as he and Irene are fully committed to the nesting process now.

Irene was the first of the local female crows I’ve heard impersonating fledglings and begging for food from their mate. Once the eggs are laid in the nest, the female crows will be on egg-incubation duty for about 18 days and, during that period, will be fully reliant on their mates to bring them food. To make sure the males are ready for this task, the females stimulate their feeding instinct by making the begging sounds and movements of a young fledgling.

Below: Irene making a begging call, which is promptly answered by Bill.

Bill in floofalicious nest-guarding mode

So, mandible-wise, he’s now billcognito.
His beak is still pretty impressive, but for now, it’s within the range of normal.

Luckily, I now know him and his family well enough to be able to find him just by his location and behaviour, and by zooming in on that DIY beak job.

Small good news in a crazy world.

Two photos of Bill the crow placed side by side.On the left is Bill before he lost the tip of his oversized upper beak and to the left, in mirror image, is Bill now, with a shorter upper beak.

Before and After

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Atmospheric Crows

March 22, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 3 Comments

The torrential rain we experienced on our little Sea to Sky vacation continued to pour down once we arrived home. Meteorologists now refer to these super-wet weather patterns as atmospheric rivers.

It felt, last week, as if I was spending about a third of my waking hours …

(a) getting the dog and me suitably dressed for rainswept walks (snorkels optional)

(b) peeling off layers of sodden rain gear, towel-drying the dog and my camera, and

On the plus side, it was a great opportunity to capture some Atmospheric Crows.
There is just something about a wet crow …

Their reaction to the weather can give us small clues into their individual crow personalities. The well-soaked and rather indignant-looking bird above is Betty, one of Bill’s fledglings from last year. She’s just getting used to the business of existing in range of a fire hose for several days in a row.

Bill in the rain

Below, looking relatively suave and sanguine in the same rain, is Dennis. A veteran of several winters, he seems to have developed a more philosophical attitude.

It seems to me that some crows are more prone to dishevelment than others. Dennis’s feathers are rarely disturbed by wind or rain. I’m not sure if this is due to sheer force of will or just lucky genetics.

There is often an even higher degree of judgment than normal in the looks that the crows give me on very wet days — as if they are considering whether I’m somehow to blame for the soggy state of the world.

I would like to speak to the management …

Somewhat alarmingly, the mild winter and early spring have the blossom trees a full month ahead of schedule. The plum trees, normally just starting to bloom now, are almost finished, and the cherry blossoms are fully out already.

Below is a crow out in two kinds of rain — some of it wet and falling from the sky, the rest, pink, and being washed out of the plum trees.

Young Lou, ever-resourceful, found a nice spot under a roof overhang to wait out the worst of the rain. An inspiration, as usual!

Below: just a few of the Atmospheric crow-inspired prints available in my shop.

Sea to Sky Vacation

March 19, 2026March 19, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 5 Comments

We’ve just come home from a short vacation, spending a couple of days in Squamish and then a couple more staying with friends who live on Lillooet Lake, just outside of Pemberton.

The sun shone for a couple of days — and then we had the kind of weather where the sea and the sky became a single cloud-wreathed, water-logged entity.

All of it was beautiful.

On Saturday, we went for a long wander with Tim Cyr, a local Squamish photographer, and his partner, Leanne. We were on the lookout for ravens and a wolf. Ravens, we found in abundance. Not so lucky with the wolf, although we did find what looked very much like wolf scat in the area where the animal is often seen.

Here’s a short visual summary of our holiday, before the normal Crow News resumes.