breeding season

Neil and his companion, Nellie, are new to the neighbourhood, and their story is one of a young couple in a highly competitive real estate market.

This may be a familiar tale to many.

I first noticed them this spring, when they seemed all set to start a new family in an area that was once a very desirable crow property, close to Fearless Fred and Florence’s block.

So, how did Neil and Nellie come to command such a sought-after piece of territory?

This is a two-part puzzle.

PART ONE — THE REAL ESTATE SITUATION

Good crow breeding areas in Vancouver are highly sought after — by crows, mostly.

The history of Neil and Nellie’s territory is a tale as old as real estate — a once-sought-after area fallen on hard times.

It’s a venerable crow neighbourhood, once favoured by now-departed local celebrities such as the Wings and and the Walkers, with lots of big leafy trees and friendly human neighbours who leave bowls of water out in the dry season. Property values, however, took a tumble when the local hawks decided to nest in the adjoining block.

Cooper’s Hawks have always lived and nested in this general area, but this year they built their nest very close by. As you can imagine, hawks are on the crows’ perpetual “undesirable neighbours” list because they consider crow eggs and fledglings to be on the grocery list for their own babies.

I often imagine a “crow’s-eye-view” overlay on urban maps. Such a map would survey the landscape from a purely corvid perspective, highlighting features that we, as humans, might not notice, but which would be “make or break” factors for crow house-hunters.

Imaginary Crow real estate listing:

Luxurious Crow Dwelling Opportunity with Beak-Dropping Amenities
Don’t miss out on this tranquil, crow-friendly East Vancouver territory, featuring storybook tree cover for tranquil nest building and secure fledgling concealment, plus meticulously human-tended lawns for grub and worm opportunities. Only a short waddle to the restaurant dumpster with the ill-fitting lid of your dreams for year-round family dining.
Low maintenance and move-in-ready!

PART TWO — YOUNG COUPLES STARTING OUT

Much like their human counterparts, young crow couples often have to start their real estate journey in less-than-ideal circumstances.

And, Neil and Nellie appear to be very young crows. They’re smaller than average, with the duller, brownish feathers of immature birds. I would guess that Neil is about two years old and Nellie about the same.

The pair built a nest in April, and Nellie exhibited all the signs of a female crow about to go and sit on eggs — begging for food from the male to remind him he’d be responsible for regular food deliveries while she’d be on incubation duty and confined to the nest.

Except that Neil seemed to have absolutely no interest in sharing his food finds with Nellie …

Time and time again, I’d see Nellie trying to get Neil to put food in her beak, only to have to give up and go get it herself.

This continued well into the time she should have been sitting quietly on the nest, and I began to think that these two, while close companions, were not really serious about parenthood. They seemed to be just playing at the whole nesting business, a bit like kids playing “house.”

Whether their hesitation has more to do with their youth, or the hawk’s proximity, remains a small mystery.

Meanwhile, having Fred and Flo as neighbours has it’s pros and cons for Neil and Nellie.

While Fred’s fearlessness is handy for moving the hawks along, his young neighbours can also bear the brunt of his mettlesome personality. This may explain Neil’s perpetually worried look.

Neil Young Crow

Just to keep things confusing, sometimes Fred and Florence are friendlier, allowing Neil and Nellie to come close and hang out with the family, leading me to wonder if perhaps they are related. Could Neil or Nellie be one of Fred and Flo’s kids from a previous year? As always, more questions than answers …

I guess only time will tell if Neil and Nellie will stick around until next year. Maybe, by then, the hawks will have moved their nest to a new block, and our intrepid young couple will have lucked into some prime territory in which to have many babies and live long and happy crow lives. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, Neil has already been the model for two of my new crow prints: Neil Young Crow and News Crow (above.)
It’s unclear whether Neil just likes to keep abreast of current affairs, or if he’s considering the newspaper box as a potential emergency shelter from fierce neighbours.

© junehunterimages, 2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The crow nesting season goes through various phases, some quiet, others much louder.

Right now we’re in a seemingly tranquil phase

All is secretive and low key as the parents try to keep the nest locations hidden from predators. Sometimes the game is given away when the female, sitting on the eggs, makes begging sounds to remind their mate to hurry up with the food delivery, but generally it’s as if the whole neighbourhood is made up entirely of of very quiet bachelor crows.

Marvin going solo while Mavis sits on the eggs, spring 2022

The mother crow will remain on the nest, incubating 2-6 eggs, for between two and three weeks. Once the eggs hatch, both parents will leave and return to the nest frequently to bring food. Another parental duty is carrying away the babies’ fecal sacs to keep the nest clean. A sure sign of hatched babies is seeing a poop-splattered adult crow — evidence of one of those sacs having failed in the disposal process. The love of a parent truly knows no bounds …

Mr. Walker on dad duty, Spring 2022

This is, of course, the calm before the storm. Soon things will start to get more exciting as dive bombing season begins.

This is such an issue in Vancouver that, a few years back, a Langara College professor created an open-source Geographic Information System called Crowtrax, allowing people to report where they were attacked by crows and thus contribute to a map of the most “crow-terrrorized” parts of the city.

I’m happy to report that there’s been a positive change in the way this part of the crow nesting season in covered by the local media over the past few years. It used to be all Hitchockian horror, with eyeball grabbing headlines about “savage” crows swooping from the sky and randomly mauling innocent pedestrians. In recent times there has been more curiosity about what’s really happening here, and much more thoughtful pieces have been written.

Last year, Georgia Strait reporter, Martin Dunphy, wrote such an article and one of my images was on the front cover.

The article included comments from Vancouver crow scientist, Rob Butler, and myself and was a refreshingly pro-crow look what can be a slightly hysterical time of year.

I have some tips on avoiding getting dive-bombed this year, but first of all it’s helpful understand what’s going on from the crows’ perspective.

The crow parents have been working on this nest since late February, carefully building it, sitting on eggs in secret, carrying bags of baby poop hither and yon, fighting off hawks, raccoons, cats and eagles. They are tired, stressed to the max, and very, very committed to the success of their little families. Now the precious babies are about the leave the relative security of the nest.

These “babies” are almost the same size as the parents at this point, so some people don’t even notice that they’re not adult crows. Sometimes they’re difficult to spot at all as they rest on the ground, camouflaged with dust and leaf litter. They’re often earthbound because, in what seems to be a bit of a design flaw, they come out of the nest before they can fly.

The young crows are curious and eager to explore, but have no idea what might be fun as opposed to fatal. The only things standing between the helpless fledglings and getting stepped on, run over or attacked by animals or birds of prey are good old mom and dad. These exhausted and very tense parents and are the “savage” dive bombers — and it’s really nothing personal, they just want you to STAY AWAY from their precious offspring until they can fly.

In my experience, sometimes the raucous cawing isn’t even directed at us humans. Often they seem to be screaming instructions at their fledging and/or making a lot of racket just to drown out the baby crow noises that might attract real predators.

So try to remember, you’re not in a Hitchcock movie — just a small domestic drama.

TIPS FOR KEEPING YOURSELF AND THE CROWS SAFE

Avoiding the nest area if possible.
If you can’t stay clear, wear a hat or use an umbrella when you walk by.
Try pinning fake eyes (paper drawings, or make some with felt) on the back of your hat or hood. Crows only attack from the rear and if they see a pair of eyes “looking” at them they won’t swoop — according to Seattle crow scientist John Marzluff.
Earn some trust with a small offering of unsalted peanuts. Not a big pile — just 3 or 4 peanuts as a gesture of friendliness.
This might just be me, but I always speak softly to the parents and tell them what a great job they’re doing.
If you see a crow fledgling alone on the ground, don’t assume it needs rescuing. There will be a parent crow nearby watching over things and, unless the baby is obviously injured, it’s always best to leave it alone.

This following little diagram is something I put together years ago as an easy guide to telling fledgling crows apart from adults …

Once the baby crows are able to fly the parents will become a lot more relaxed and spend a lot of time feeding, grooming and showing the young ones the ropes of being a successful city crow.

Spending time watching this process will reward you with many laughs as you see yourself reflected in the behaviour of the parents, kids, or both.

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© junehunterimages, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.