Neil Calbrade

Carrion/Hooded Cros is widely distributed across Europe, from the Mediterranean to the Arctic circle. There are four subspecies, sometimes separated into two distinct species, despite the large intergradation in contact zones (Vijay et al. 2016). All-black Carrion Crow corone in W Europe, from England, down to Iberia and across to Germany. Grey-bodied Hooded Crow (group cornix) occurs in Scotland and Ireland, and from E Germany and Italy N and E, including Fennoscandia, Corsica and Sardinia, to European Russia.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		16200000-27500000,20800000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Carrion/Hooded Crow

Crows are resident and adults are sedentary on their breeding territory. However, some immatures disperse, especially during their first spring, and there are some long-distance movements. There are some S or SW winter movements of E and N Hooded Crows that can reach W Europe. Overall, most recoveries are within 100 km of the ringing site. There are very few long-distance recoveries, up to 2,000 km, for cornix individuals originating from N and E Europe. GPS tracking data confirm dispersal of immatures to a few 100 km from their natal site (Jiguet 2020).

Recoveries by Condition for Carrion/Hooded Crow

Most recoveries from before the 1990s are of dead birds, as Crows are considered to be a pest and are killed across most of Europe. However, the development of colour-ringing programs from the 1990s means that over 80% of distant recoveries are of live birds (and nearly 50% of the total are colour-ring resightings).

Annual Movements for Carrion/Hooded Crow

Most distant movements concern Hooded Crows from N and continental E populations, moving to C, W and SW Europe, although most stay within the cornix breeding distribution. Birds from the British Isles do not move to the continent.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Carrion/Hooded Crow

The monthly figures give little indication of a possible structured phenology of movements or migration. There is some dispersal from C to the SW from mid-Oct to end Feb. Movements from N to W and SW occur mainly in Oct and Apr, with most distant recoveries in Nov-Feb. Movements from the E start in Oct, with last returns in May.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Jiguet, F.2020 . The Fox and the Crow. A need to update pest control strategies. Perspectives. Biological Conservation article no.: 108693 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108693)
Vijay, N., Bossu, C., Poelstra, J. et al.2016 . Evolution of heterogeneous genome differentiation across multiple contact zones in a crow species complex. Nature Communications 7 article no.: 13195 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13195)

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