Carrion Crow Corvus corone 小嘴烏鴉
Category I. Accidental in winter.
IDENTIFICATION
Nov. 2021, Michelle and Peter Wong.
48-53 cm. All black corvid superficially similar to Large-billed Crow. The most obvious differences are the smaller head, flatter culmen and more shallowly-sloping forehead (never shows the domed crown of many Large-billed Crows). The tail is more square-ended in flight.
VOCALISATIONS
The typical call is a loud ‘kraah’, very similar to that of Large-billed Crow.
Other calls can be slightly higher-pitched than Large-billed Crow.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
All records have occurred in the Deep Bay area wetlands where there is discarded fish and other organic waste.
OCCURRENCE
Has occurred in the period from 7 November to 6 April.
1992: adult at Mai Po NR and Tsim Bei Tsui from 22 November to 12 December (Stott and Chalmers 1993).
1993: first-winter at Nim Wan on 7 November.
2001: adult at Mai Po NR on 16, 21 and 25 December.
2002: two at Mai Po NR from 19 January to 8 March.
2004: two at Mai Po NR on 29 January, one at Fung Lok Wai 20 February.
2007: one at Mai Po NR and Lut Chau 4 January to 6 April.
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Has been recorded joining mixed corvid roosts at Mai Po NR.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
C. c. orientalis breeds from central Siberia and north Mongolia east to Kamchatka and Sakhalin, and from central Kazakhstan, and extreme northwest India east to north China (south to north Qinghai, north Sichuan and Hebei) to Japan; northeast populations migrate south to south China. Abundances are high in the northeast, but low in south China. C.c. corone breeds western and central Europe south to Iberia and northern Italy (nominate form).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend increasing.
Madge, S. (2020). Carrion Crow (Corvus corone), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.carcro1.01
Stott, R. D. E and M. L. Chalmers (1993). Carrion Crow: a new species to Hong Kong. Hong Kong Bird Report 1992: 131-133.
