The Cuban crow (''Corvus nasicus'') is one of four species of

crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

that occur on islands in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

. It is closely related to the white-necked crow (''C. leucognaphalus'') and Jamaican crow (''C. jamaicensis''), with which it shares similar features. The fourth Caribbean crow, the

palm crow The palm crow (''Corvus palmarum'') is a relatively small corvid that occurs on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola ( Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Cuba, where it was formerly very frequent, but is now reduced in population. Taxonomy T ...

(''C. palmarum''), is a later arrival in evolutionary terms, and shows characteristics more akin to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

n species, such as the

fish crow The fish crow (''Corvus ossifragus'') is a species of crow associated with wetland habitats in the eastern and southeastern United States. Taxonomy and etymology The fish crow was given its binomial name by the Scottish ornithologist Alexan ...

(''C. ossifragus''), which it is probably closely related to.

Distribution and habitat

It can be found quite commonly over most of the large island of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

and on the nearby

Isla de la Juventud Isla de la Juventud (; en, Isle of Youth) is the second-largest Cuban island (after Cuba's mainland) and the seventh-largest island in the West Indies (after mainland Cuba itself, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Andros Isl ...

(as well as the

Turks and Caicos The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and n ...

islands) in woodland and areas that have been cleared for agriculture. It is frequently found around farms and villages where it seems to have adapted quite well to living in relatively close contact with human settlements. Corvus_nasicus_1838

Description

A stocky, medium-sized ( in length) forest crow, the bill of this species is long and deep with a gentle curve towards the tip giving a large headed profile. The nasal bristles sweep forward then upward and frequently reveal the nostrils which are hidden in almost all other members of the genus '' Corvus''. There is a patch of dark grey bare skin behind the browinsh-red eye and at the base of the lower mandible. The black plumage has a bluish-purple gloss in good light. The bill, legs and feet are black.

Diet

Food consists of

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...

and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pa ...

s though it does appear to take human food readily and will scavenge for scraps where the opportunity arises. Large noisy flocks can be seen feeding in trees and it will also readily feed on the ground especially where grain and other seeds have been spilt or left unprotected on the surface of a field.

Call

The voice is quite remarkable and is rather un-crow like, with strange liquid bubbling notes and high ringing sounds produced in various combinations. It also produces a thin screeched ''"aaaaauh"'' that rises in inflection.

Breeding

The nest is built in tall trees, though little further information about breeding is recorded as yet.

Image links

Good quality series of images

Cuban Crow videos, photos & sounds
on the eBird

Footnotes

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1584566 Cuban crow Birds of Cuba Birds of the Turks and Caicos Islands Endemic birds of the Caribbean Cuban crow