The small-billed crow (Corvus corone) belongs to the family Finches in taxonomy, and its black feathers glow in light with a metallic luster of either purple or blue or green. The small-billed crow resembles its relative, the Corvus macrorhynchos, and is a large (half-meter-long), all-black, coarse-called crow. Compared with large-billed crows, small-billed crows have a thinner beak, and the frontal arch (the beak peak forms a distinct angle to the forehead) is flatter and less pronounced, and the call is relatively warmer.
Small-billed crow (image source see watermark)
The small-billed crow is widely distributed in China and is a common resident bird (short-distance migration in winter), and a few areas in the south are winter migratory birds. You can often see them in cities, villages and other environments, and even in plateaus above 4000m above sea level you will find them everywhere. Small-billed crows are omnivorous birds, but prefer to eat meat. Wild bird eggs and chicks become their meals on the plate. Small-billed crows not only eat live food, but they also do not refuse to come to carrion. If animal carcasses appear anywhere, whether in the wild or on the road, they will arrive in time to "clean" the carcasses. In addition, where there are humans, there is garbage, and where there is garbage, you can see the traces of these crows foraging, so there are many small-billed crows in towns and villages.
Small-billed crows eat dead fish (image source see watermark)
Birds of the family Ravenidae are very protective and aggressive, and often actively attack birds of prey or humans who invade their territory (even if they inadvertently offend them).
Small-billed crows chase raptors (Image: xj616)
Small-billed crows have an interesting, easy-to-observe habit: every winter, they spend their nights in large flocks in the city and fly to the suburbs during the day to forage for food. For example, in the center of Beijing, chang'an Avenue, Wangfujing and Beijing Normal University, in the winter evening, you will see hundreds of small-billed crows circling and chirping every day, stopping on the sidewalk trees on the side of the road, often crowding a tree. The next morning they flew away in groups, leaving white bird droppings to prove where they had been last night.
Most crows are all black (you guessed it, there are crows that are not completely black, see the end of the article extended reading), the call is low and monotonous, and like to appear around animal carcasses and garbage, so it is often used as a symbol of bad luck, this idea is of course unscientific, but for the small-billed crows that move around the city, the bird droppings that accumulate under the trees at night have become a headache for city managers.