Carrion crow  (Corvus corone)

Carrion crows have a broad diet, including carcasses, eggs, insects, small vertebrates, molluscs, and even vegetables and grains in winter (7). They bury food for later consumption, and occasionally drop certain food items with hard shells, such as crabs and nuts, from a height in order to obtain the food inside (8).

This crow starts to breed at three years of age. Pairs, once formed, last for life. Courtship involves mutual preening, and a rapid head-bowing display by the male (8). Breeding pairs are very territorial, and create solitary nests in trees, bushes or on cliffs (8). The nest consists of thick branches and twigs intertwined with pegs, rags, paper, bones and other odd objects, held together with mud and dung and lined with wool, hair and grass (8). Four to five bluish-green, speckled eggs are laid in April, and are incubated by the female for up to 20 days. During this time, the male brings food to his mate on the nest. In the early part of their life, chicks are fed on regurgitated food by the female. Both parents then provision them with worms and maggots, progressing to various types of meat at a later stage (8). The young will have usually fledged after 35 days, but stay close to their parents for some time (8).

In winter large communal roosts of carrion crows can occur (8). This species displays behaviour known as 'anting'; individuals allow ants to crawl over their body, adopting unusual prone postures. They are also known to have a strange interest with fire, and have been seen carrying burning material to the nest, and then displaying unusual behaviour (8).