I arrive at the Arboretum just as it opens on a chilly, sunny, early-winter morning. The grounds are quiet except for the chips and calls and twitters of our winter-resident birds.
One of the largest among these is the American crow. A familiar sight throughout our state, including urban areas, crows are incredibly bright and social. In winter they congregate in large numbers to sleep in communal roosts. They have been known to create and use tools and will collect bright shiny objects and store them in their nests.
Crow are bright and very adaptable.
One crow has a few white spots among all the black. Likely due to leucism (partial loss of pigmentation), this phenomenon is rare; only about one percent of crows have any white feathers. Occasionally (1 in 30,000 or so) a crow has true albinism and is completely white with pink eyes.
Leucism (partial loss of pigmentation) occurs in about 1% of crows, causing some feathers to be white.
Most crows don’t breed until they’re at least four years old and often spend the years until then with their parents, resulting in family groups of up to 15 individuals. Crows are very un-picky eaters and consequently do well in many different environments. In addition to grains, nuts, seeds and fruits, they also eat insects and aquatic animals. While they aren’t primarily scavengers, they will eat carrion and garbage and also prey on other birds’ eggs and nestlings. Once at Roberts Bird Sanctuary in Minneapolis, I heard a robin making an alarm call. I trained my binoculars in the direction of the distress just in time to see a crow flying off with a blue egg in its beak. The blue against black had a beauty to it; one creature’s loss is another’s gain.
Crows are highly social birds and may roost together in large numbers at night.
Chickadees are busy foraging for food. These little cuties are active, acrobatic and social, traveling in flocks and often associating with nuthatches and woodpeckers.
Chickadees are very agile, a trait that serves them well when foraging for food.
A male and female cardinal perch high in a tree. The bright red plumage of the male is an especially welcome sight during our Minnesota winters when so much of the landscape is gray and white. The females, too, are lovely, despite being a bit more muted. You won’t find these birds in the northern half of our state, only the southern.
Minnesota’s cardinals reside only in the southern half of the state.
A red-bellied woodpecker appears to be studying the larger-than-life cardinal perched atop a snowman (part of the Arb’s Winter Lights displays). This bird too is at the northern edge of its range in the southern half of Minnesota.
A red-bellied woodpecker peers at a larger-than-life cardinal.
Spending time in the company of my feathered kin always lifts my spirits, and this morning was no exception.