It’s an especially tense time on Nest Watch at the moment.
Some local crows are getting close to having fledglings leave the nest, while others, having lost the first nest, are starting all over again, searching for twigs and moss to rebuild in another location.
Overhead, the local bald eagles and hawks are hunting, pursued by groups of furious crows. These are particularly scary times for the crows with nests located in high spots!
There is so much nesting news, I’ll have to limit this update to just a few of the local crow families, with more dispatches later.
Today, I’ll tell you how things are going for Marvin and Mavis, Norman and Nancy and Sneezy and Sue. All of these crow pairs are still at their first nests of the season and tantalizingly close to having fledglings fledge!
Marvin and Mavis
Marvin and Mavis are playing their nesting cards close to their feathery chests.
You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away and know when to run
You never count your hatchlings when you’re sittin’ on the wee nest
There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the fledgin’s done— With apologies to Kenny Rogers
Despite visiting them at least twice a day, I still can’t tell for sure where they’ve built their nest — although I’m beginning to have my suspicions. That they DO have a nest is certain, as Mavis is mostly absent, appearing in the open only occasionally to stretch luxuriously and preen her nest-cramped feathers.
Marvin seemed to have a lot of white on his beak the other day — a sign that the eggs have hatched. A little sidebar here on the significance of White Beak Day, as featured in the 2026 City Crow Calendar:
WHITE BEAK DAY is the first day of the nesting season when crow parents appear with white stuff on their beak. That white material is fecal matter from their hatchlings. Sounds a bit yuck, but it’s all part of Nature’s amazing design.
Once the eggs are hatched, the nest is full of tiny pooping baby birds. It’s critical to keep the nest as clean and bacteria-free as possible, and Mother Nature provides fecal sacs for this purpose. While disposable diapers are not available for birds, the hatchlings do excrete into handy sacs of mucous membrane, which the parents can carefully remove from the nest.
When the hatchlings are very young, their digestive systems are not yet fully developed, so their droppings are nutrient-rich so, with a practical “waste not want not” philosophy, the crow parents will often consume the sacs. Sometimes they burst — hence the white on the parental beaks.
It’s a happy day as it means that eggs have hatched successfully and the crow family is one step closer to a successful nesting season. Today I saw Earl, Norman and Sue with white on their beaks!
Marvin with tell-tale white marks on his beak.
I haven’t seen Lou (their fledgling from last year who stayed with them all winter) for the past couple of weeks. It’s too early to tell if his absence is temporary or if Mom and Dad have told him it’s time to move on and be an independent young crow.
Below: Marvin in fully-fluffed fierce guard mode. Smart, yet casual.
Norman and Nancy
I’m really hoping for success for these two as they embark upon their fourth nesting season with no fledglings to show for their efforts to date.
Norman and Nancy earn top marks for an early start this year, but their site selection is somewhat risky. They chose to use the same tree they’ve used in previous years, where they lost the nest to raccoons at least twice. This time, they’ve built near the top of the tree, reducing the raccoon risk, but putting them closer to the “eagle zone.”
A bedraggled Nancy leaves the nest for a well-earned swish and shake break.
However, judging by the questionable items I’ve had to fish out of our bird bath over the past couple of weeks, and the white on their beaks, I think Nancy and Norm are currently feeding some fledglings up there. They like to pre-soak food for the babies to keep them hydrated and fed in one go.
It seems that the menu over at Norman and Nancy’s is rodent-forward. While this good for rat population control, I am a bit tired of disinfecting the bird bath after fishing out soggy rodent-remnants. I’m now trying to divert their food prep efforts from the bird bath to a simple plastic bowl of water that’s easier to clean a few times a day.
I’m keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that we’ll see some little Normans and Nancies (is that the plural of Nancy??) soon.
Norman cawing at a gull that flew too close to the nest this morning.
Sneezy and Sue
For a young couple, Sneezy and Sue are doing well on the nesting front. They seem to have stayed roughly in the territory they claimed last spring when Bongo and Bella opted to move out of the cat-inhabited territory. Luckily, the cat seems to have gone now. I think Bongo and Bella would like to reclaim that part of the block, but Sneezy and Sue are settled in now, and having none of it.
Like Norman and Nancy, Sneezy and Sue built their nest early and they chose a well camouflaged spot in a dark-leafed tree. They’ve maintained a very low profile for weeks now, with Sue emerging from the nest over the past couple of weeks, suitably adorned with the white streaks of parental success.
Young Syd, Sneezy and Sue’s fledgling from last year, is around intermittently and helping to guard the nest.
Let’s hope that the nesting luck holds for this trio of crow families for the next few crucial weeks.
In my next post, I’ll let you know how things are going for Bill and Irene and their neighbours, Earl and Echo.
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