Neil Young, The Crow

August 21, 2026August 20, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

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.

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Success At Last!

June 25, 2026June 24, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 4 Comments

Having watched Norm and Nancy work so hard at the nesting game, spring after spring, with not a single fledgling to show for it, I’ve been thrilled to see them now parenting two little ones.

Now, admittedly, they may be wondering what the heck they signed up for—a common phenomenon among first-time parents.

Mum, mum, mum …!

I have been on the look out for fledglings in Norman and Nancy’s territory for weeks. Finally, in early June, I caught sight of one!

Given that Norman and Nancy live right beside our house AND that I had been fledgling-seeking for so long , it’s pretty remarkable how under-wraps they managed to keep this one.

And, as it turns out, there were two of them! Both baby crows had grey eyes by the time I spotted them, rather than the blue of a brand new fledgling. This means that Norman and Nancy managed to keep them very well hidden and safe for at least a couple of weeks before they made any kind of public debut.

Norman with the two babies

I had been looking forward to writing this happy post, but yesterday things took a turn.
I got a message from our neighbours to say that a crow had flown into their window and was unconscious. By the time I rushed over, the neighbour had approached the baby with a view to rescue, but the fledgling woke up and flew off.

I spent the rest of yesterday and all of today trying to see if little window-crasher had survived or not. It’s been difficult, as it’s so hot the crows are keeping the babies quiet and hidden up in the cooler tree canopies.

Early this morning my heart sank when I saw Norman, Nancy and a single fledgling up on the Hydro pole at the end of the lane. (Note that, at 7am, it’s already warm enough for the crows to have their beaks open to cool down.)

I kept wandering back to the same area for half an hour or so because I was almost sure I heard another fledgling in a nearby tree. I’ve been back a few times now and can say, with relative confidence, that there are still two fledglings. I haven’t managed to get a photo of them both together, but I have seen two at once and both seem relatively (given the heat) chipper.

Hopefully Crasher has learned a valuable lesson that he or she will carry into the future.

Stay safe, little ones!

Bill and Earl Nesting News

June 17, 2026June 17, 2026 / The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 2 Comments

The nesting season started early this year, with spring about a month ahead of schedule in the Pacific Northwest. Many crow pairs already have fledglings out and about, learning all about the pleasures and pitfalls of life outside of the nest.

About half of the early nesters had something go awry with that first effort, forcing them to start over. Bill and Earl’s nests fell into this category, putting them at a bit of a disadvantage; if they do manage to raise fledglings this time, the weather will be even hotter, drier and more challenging.

BILL AND IRENE (WITH BACK-UP BETTY)

Bill and Irene got off to a flying start this year, being the first crow pair I saw with an active nest. They have the added advantage of Betty, their offspring from a couple of springs ago, who acts as back-up nest security.

Irene sat on the nest for at least two weeks, and all seemed to be going well until one day I went by and there was no sign of Bill, Irene or Betty, and the nest seemed abandoned.

Bill and Irene live several blocks from me, so I can only check in on them once or twice a day, so I didn’t see what caused the nest to fail. It was in a fairly small tree, so my guess would be a ground-based predator, perhaps a raccoon or a cat.

Mysteriously, Bill, Irene and Betty remained absent for so long that another crow pair arrived and started building a nest in their territory.

Furious Bill approaches the newcomers

News of this outrage must have reached Bill and family, because they returned from their mini-break with a vengeance.

Much chasing and shouting ensued.

Below: Irene states her opinion.

Currently, the two crow families seem to have reached an uneasy truce. Irene has vanished again, so I am assuming they have a new nest and she is sitting on the eggs again.

Betty the crow guarding her territory from a leafy branch

Betty, keeping an eye on things

Meanwhile, Bill and Betty take turns in patrolling the area and making sure their territorial lines are being respected.

This is Betty, distinguished by her one sticking-out feather on the left wing.

Betty is not only unrelenting at chasing off other crows, but, like Fearless Fred, occasionally tries to pull my dog’s tail. She is quite the small character.

Bill in full nest-guarding regalia with maximally fluffed head, chest and leg feathers. He somehow manages to look twice his normal size in this mode.

EARL AND ECHO

Meanwhile, half a block away, venerable local crows, Earl and Echo are nesting. These two have been successful parents year after year and have produced quite the dynasty, including Dennis and Sneezy.

I do worry about them though, as they are getting on in years and the bent leg that Earl has hobbled about on for the entire time I’ve known him (at least five or six years now) seems to be giving him more trouble. Sometimes he misses a landing at the first attempt, and I often see him standing on his one good leg.

Echo has her own challenges, being blind in her left eye.

Like Bill and Irene, Earl and Echo got off to an early nesting start, building a nest high up in a tree in their territory.

The height of the nest, and the increase in leaf cover since I took the photo above made it hard to see what was going on up there.

As of yesterday, I can report that they’ve abandoned that first nest, for whatever reason, and now Echo is sitting on a new one in a different tree.

Earl and Echo’s new nest.

Last week, Earl was having some problems with other crows on their turf, forcing Echo to come down from the nest to help him repel the invaders.
You can see in the video below that she was in full, grumpy “don’t make me come over there” mode, assessing the situation with her one functioning eye.

Earl and Echo’s neighbours to the west are Bill and Irene. The two families seem to have the sort of sensible arrangement arrived at by mature, diplomacy-minded crows who don’t want to fight if they don’t need to. Occasionally they will get close to each other’s territory, resulting in some pro-forma cawing, but no actual battling for ground. Bill and Earl are old enough to realize that unnecessary brawling is a waste of precious energy. They could be advisors to certain humans …