[Tweeters] Raven making odd clicking call

[Dennis Paulson]

To add to Jeff’s post, I presume most people on tweeters, at least those of us who live in the cities, know this about crows. As neat and interesting birds as they are, they are accomplished predators, and because we are essentially subsidizing their populations to grow and grow in our urban areas, these populations are having a real effect on open-nesting birds. We have never had a Bushtit or robin nest fledge in our yard—the sharp-eyed crows find every one and wait until the eggs hatch to take the young. Not that either species is endangered, but surely they are diminished in numbers and ubiquity from what they might be.

Crows also can empty any bird feeder they can reach, and they’re even smarter than squirrels. So we chase them out of the yard any time they come into it, but I think they are probably good at knowing when we’re not around, so it’s an uphill battle. 

Dennis Paulson
Seattle


> On Mar 6, 2022, at 8:33 AM, Jeff Gilligan <jeffgilligan10 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 

> Yes  regarding the clicking sound and a great variety of other strange noises.  I am currently in Green Valley, Arizona, where there are a lot of ravens, and they are regular neigborhood birds, much like how crows now behave in the major Pacific Northwest cities. 

> 

>   BTW:  Crows in urban areas is  a relatively recent thing.  For much of my birding life crows were wary, and not seen much in residential or urban settings.  They learned the advantages of city life rather quickly.  Now  in Portland (which I recently moved from to coastal Washington and Arizona) crows allow one to walk within feet of them, and their urban numbers have become a problem.  This is not only  a problem regarding sanitary considerations, but also regarding their predation on other nesting birds, such as robins, which no longer are able to nest in many residential settings.

> 

> Jeff Gilligan

> 

> 

>> On Mar 5, 2022, at 10:35 PM, Gary Bletsch <garybletsch at protonmail.com <mailto:garybletsch at protonmail.com>> wrote:

>> 

>> 

>> ​Dear Tweeters,

>> 

>> Today, the fifth of March, a Common Raven was flying around the fields by the parking area at the Samish West Ninety. The Raven was making a call that I don't remember ever hearing before. It was a sort of clicking call. At first, I thought I'd found "something good," but was surprised when the Raven flew by me, then circled a few times, making this odd call. I transcribed it as "Chickita-chickita-chickatik." Each utterance lasted about a second and a half. 

>> 

>> I took a look at the recordings on Xenocanto, but for some reason, my computer decided that I won't be listening to any recordings, so I decided not to deal with that particular tech nightmare. and left it at that!

>> 

>> Are any Tweeters familiar with such a clicking call of Common Ravens?

>> 

>> Yours truly,

>> 

>> Gary Bletsch

>> 

>> Sent with ProtonMail <https://protonmail.com/> Secure Email.

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