CROW: last laugh for a bird of ill-omen

CRAFTY and resourceful, the carrion crow continues to flourish in this country despite the gradual decline of more popular bird species.

Best known for its scavenging nature and opportunistic eye, the carrion crow also harbours a predator's instinct to home in on any vulnerable creature too weak or feeble to resist.

This formidable bird comes from the same family group as the jay, jackdaw, magpie, rook, raven and chough - all known for their intelligence. While the chough is now the rarest of these, the carrion crow is among the leaders in terms of its rocketing population, with magpies and jackdaws also faring remarkably well.

Hated and feared the world over as a bird of ill-omen, the carrion crow has nevertheless managed to thrive in the face of Man's often cruel attempts to suppress it.

According to research by the British Trust for Ornithology, carrion crow numbers here have increased constantly over the last 30 years.

In the past year alone, national numbers are thought to have leapt by as much as 12 per cent as the crow continues to gorge on road kill carrion and game bird eggs - both blithely provided by Man.

With its strong, knife-like beak designed for tearing flesh, the carrion crow is even a match for birds of prey such as the buzzard which it often mobs and drives away.

Other, smaller birds are more easily terrorised and I've written here before about a young blackbird losing an eye in a savage assault by a crow. The black carrion crow is now widespread throughout England, Wales and most of Scotland.

It gives way to a sub-species, the hooded crow, in north west Scotland and Ireland.

The hooded crow is similar to the carrion crow in every respect apart from its distinct piebald colouring.

Its 'hooded' black head is starkly contrasted by a light grey back and underside.

Wing and tail feathers are still black.

Both types will eat virtually anything, attacking lambs and even sheep that have become too sick to defend themselves.

It is probably for this reason that farmers have had a traditional dislike of crows.

Years ago, it was not uncommon to see rows of shot crows strung up outside a farm as a warning to their chums.

The human-like 'scarecrow' was also obviously devised with the express intention of keeping this unpopular bird away.

But both measures have clearly failed.

Today, in any town or open stretch of country it is usually not too long before those great black wings flap into view.

Shakespeare was well aware of the morbid atmosphere conjured up by the brooding presence of crows.

In 'Macbeth', he wrote:"Light thickens and the crow makes wing to the rooky wood; Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse."

In spite of such negative imagery and continued persecution, crows, it seems, have every reason to crow.