One of our crows fledged today.  

A couple of months ago we noticed that every now and again a crow would fly into the tall palm tree in our back yard. Crows are very secretive about their nests, and are very quiet and surreptitious when coming and going. We realized what was happening when the crows began swiftly and determinedly escorting ravens out of the area. Any poor raven that accidentally ventured within a half block of our palm tree was immediately dived upon and chased away. Careful scrutiny of the crown of the palm tree revealed a nest tucked in close to the trunk.  

And then a couple of weeks the noise started. While still not letting themselves be seen flying in and out of the nest, the crows now began to give loud alarm calls from the top of trees and roofs whenever we or one of our neighbors stepped out into the yard. That likely meant that the crow parents now had little ones in the nest and were stepping up the level of protection. 

This morning Diane was out in the yard with Maggie and saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her think “Maggie doesn’t have any black toys out here…” Maggie has that fierce boxer look that makes people cross to the other side of the street when they see us coming, and she loves to play rough when she finds a worthy partner. But she is also incredibly gentle and delicate and her first approach is always tender. So she was just carefully sniffing the new creature in her domain and giving it a soft lick. Diane took Maggie inside and we began researching what to do.

 It is a myth that birds will abandon a fledgling if it is touched by humans, but you don’t want to stress the animal unnecessarily. A recorded message at South Bay Wildlife Rehab suggested placing a bird that has fallen out of the nest on a protected branch in a tree if possible. But our little crow was not up for that, it didn’t hold on to the branch. So we placed it back on the ground in a protected area between the compost pile and the fence and waited. Anne Lynch soon called back and diagnosed the situation over the phone. “I can hear the parents in the background” she said, “They are giving their ‘dangerous predator’ calls and telling the little one to hide.”  She said that crows need to leave the nest at that stage to continue to grow and that our bird will likely be flying in a week or so. The parents will feed it on the ground and protect it from cats.

 In the afternoon I called the California Wildlife Center, which Anne had said will take in orphaned crows, because I hadn’t seen the parents feed the fledgling. Animal Care Coordinator Denys Hemen called back and sent me out there to take another look at the bird. It was alert, standing up, calling out to its parents and had moved around a little. All good signs, said Denys. The adult crows were probably just really careful not to be seen near the defenseless chick and might even drop food from the air if they deemed it too dangerous to approach.

We will keep an eye on the situation. If the bird becomes lethargic I will call Denys back, but so far everything seems to be going according to nature’s plan. Maggie will have to be supervised during her visits to the yard for a while, and maybe soon there will be an addition to the annoying crow flock around here.

Crows lay three to seven eggs. Does that mean there are two to six siblings still up there? Stay tuned.