Nesting season is fully underway once again, and, as usual, things are going more smoothly for some crows than for others.
My next post will give a rundown on how individual crows are doing, but today I’m thinking about the general crow strategies for a successful nesting season.
This pivotal period requires some serious tactical thinking — decisions made at the outset of nest-building have big downstream consequences.
For example, when to build the nest?
With hotter, drier summers becoming the new normal, the impetus is to get started as soon as possible. Fledgling-rearing in drought conditions is really difficult and lowers the survival rate considerably.
An early start is, therefore, the obvious way to go — but there are downsides!
Any early-built nest is often in a deciduous tree that isn’t fully leafed out, allowing potential predators to observe and memorize the location.
This year, we’ve already had a lot of hot, dry weather in Vancouver, so I’ve been putting bowls of water out to help the crows keep themselves and their fledglings hydrated. It has just rained, so we’re back to normal spring weather with puddles-a-plenty — for now.
Many of the early nests will fail for one reason or another, forcing some crows to hustle to get a second nest built. This will mean they’ll be forced to raise the fledglings in the hotter, drier weather, but they’ll usually take that chance.
Where to build the nest?
Even once a site is picked, there’s the question of whether to build higher or lower. Height offers relative safety from ground-based dangers like cats, raccoons and coyotes, but puts the nest in the hunting zone for eagles, hawks, owls and ravens.
So many risk/benefit scenarios and lessons learned in previous years are being processed by our local crow parents.
Each couple will take many factors, far beyond mere nest altitude, into consideration before deciding where to build. Good nest sites are highly sought after, and territorial lines between crow families may be fought over and altered at this time of year.
Real estate in the city is a competitive commodity, for people AND crows.
Crow families generally have a half block or so of territory, which they will defend against other crows and, in winter, they will spend most of their daylight hours there before heading to the roost at night. Once a nest is built and has eggs in it, the crow parents will forgo the nightly roost trip to guard the nest and, later, the fledglings, 24/7.
Crow couples prefer to nest in the same territory, year after year — but things in the city are always in flux, for people and for wildlife — and sometimes a change of scene is essential if something in the neighbourhood changes to make it less safe or desirable.
The most spectacular example of this was Marvin and Mavis’s forced last-minute move in 2021 when the nearby stand of trees they’d nested in for years was felled for a new development.
Last Spring, Bongo and Bella had to abandon their first nest due to the addition of a particularly ferocious outdoor cat to the local community. They moved their nest location out of their usual territory, forcing them to fight for space with crow neighbours to the south. Meanwhile, the territory they left vacant was snapped up by a more junior couple. Sometimes you have to put up with a less-than-ideal starter home when you’re just starting out, even if it comes with a terrifying tree-climbing cat.
Even after nesting season, the territorial lines have remained permanently redrawn.
Another example: this season, I noticed a Cooper’s Hawk nesting in some big trees that are usually prime crow breeding spots. Some of the more senior crow families have always nested there. Now, suddenly, that particular area is much less sought after, and the only crow pair I see nesting nearby are a very young couple.
Nervous young dad
Crow trying to chase a hawk away from the nest
Their prospects are not great; aside from the predatory neighbours, this young pair are clearly inexperienced. The male, who looks very young and nervous, has not gotten the hang of bringing food to his mate as she sits on the nest, resulting in lots of loud (hawk-attracting) begging on her part, and frequent trips out of the nest to get her own snacks, when she should be sitting quietly and incubating the eggs. The odds seem pretty stacked against this young couple, but you never know …
The young crow pair that took over Bongo and Bella’s cat-scourged territory last year did succeed in raising fledglings. They were Sneezy and Sue, and one of the fledglings, Syd, is still with them — helping to defend their new territory.
Which brings me to perhaps the biggest factor in nest success or failure — sheer luck!
My next post will give a rundown on how my local crows are doing as individual families. We’ll see how Marvin & Mavis, Norman and Nancy, Bill and Irene and the rest are doing, and whether the nest gods are smiling or frowning on their efforts so far.
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