March 2, 2008 - Quiet Crows

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Throughout most of the winter crows have appeared in large, noisy free-ranging flocks as they searched for food. Now a change in that behavior is happening. As crows enter their spring courtship they form smaller family units — most likely a breeding pair and their non-breeding young from the previous year. As nest building time approaches this group of crows will begin to hang out in a particular area day after day near suitable nesting trees. And they fall silent. In a week or two after this happens you might see a crow carrying branches and twigs to build a new nest or reinforce an old one from last year. You might even see a crow breaking dead branches off a tree for its nest. One thing for sure, though, you won’t hear much from crows once nesting begins.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.