Charles and I just got back from crow hunting in northern Maine. While sitting in my truck at a stop sign, there were 5 crows in a mowed field no more than 20 yards from us. (Couldn't shoot, house right there)
Believe it or not, 2 of the 5 crows had white wings, exactly like the one I shot and posted the pic of.
How far from there to where you killed the other one? Makes you wander if they are close relatives or just chance? Last winter I got into what I think was a family group that had quite a bit of brown in their plumage. It wasn't enough for a camera to pick up clearly but I killed several that day that definitely had brown in them. It is cool you got to see them.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
How far from there to where you killed the other one? Makes you wander if they are close relatives or just chance? Last winter I got into what I think was a family group that had quite a bit of brown in their plumage. It wasn't enough for a camera to pick up clearly but I killed several that day that definitely had brown in them. It is cool you got to see them.
Greg, we were at least 200 miles north of where I shot the other one. We started at the Maine/Canada border with our hunting. The border there is the St. John River. We sat on the American shore and blasted "young crow" across the river with my Spitfire. A few came over from Canada and killed 2. We then worked our way south through the potato fields hunting our way home, running and gunning. We only killed 17, but had a great time exploring the country and scouting for early goose season that opens september 1st.
I saw one here a couple of months ago. The following day I saw one about 4 miles and wandered if it were the same bird. It would be interesting to know what percentage of crows are piebald. 200 miles is a stretch for relatives I would think.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
The percentage of crows that are piebald is quite small to be sure. Look at all the piebald crows that have been shot by members on this site as compared to the total amount of them in the USA.
To put it in another light I have shot 33 piebald crows that I know of during the past 37 seasons. Some years I never shot any while in other years I might get as many as two out of thousands that I shoot during any given crow season.
Bob A.
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The percentage of crows that are piebald is quite small to be sure. Look at all the piebald crows that have been shot by members on this site as compared to the total amount of them in the USA.
To put it in another light I have shot 33 piebald crows that I know of during the past 37 seasons. Some years I never shot any while in other years I might get as many as two out of thousands that I shoot during any given crow season.
Bob A.
Your total kill is somewhere around 150,000 if I remember correctly and of those you have killed 33 known piebalds. If that is a representative number it would be around 0.022 %. Or one out of 4545 crows are piebald. I feel fortunate then just to have seen 4 since I started crow hunting last year.
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Well, I have seen about 6 and killed 1 piebald out of about 300 total kills for my lifetime. :)
Kev
I am right there with you Mainehunt, I have kept a log of all my hunts since 2005 and just got done counting up my birds... I probably had less than 10 crows over the course of my life before I kept totals and I still haven't broken the 300 crow mark. I see these post on here about 100+ bird days and just think, WOW! Right now I would be happy if I could get 100 birds over the course of a season!
Well, I have seen about 6 and killed 1 piebald out of about 300 total kills for my lifetime. :)
Kev
I am right there with you Mainehunt, I have kept a log of all my hunts since 2005 and just got done counting up my birds... I probably had less than 10 crows over the course of my life before I kept totals and I still haven't broken the 300 crow mark. I see these post on here about 100+ bird days and just think, WOW! Right now I would be happy if I could get 100 birds over the course of a season!
Sounds like some of you boys might need a road trip!
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"If money can fix it, it ain't broke" The great theologian and my crow hunting partner AW.
Can honestly say that out of the many thousands of crows I have shot in my lifetime that I have never really shot a piebald crow. I have taken lots with the interesting brown colouration to the wings but I do believe this to be common with crows in the summer after molting their glossy spring breeding plumage.
I however do not make a habit of collecting downed crows unless I'm on private property, or hunting open country where the dead crows would be noticed by others as I don't care to "advertize" my actions. I mainly just leave them where they fall and let nature recycle them. Therefore, it can be assumed that I may have shot a few interesting "oddities" of crowdom without knowing.
Did however shoot one this past spring that caught my attention. Had a white tipped wing feather as per the attatched photos.
Can honestly say that out of the many thousands of crows I have shot in my lifetime that I have never really shot a piebald crow. I have taken lots with the interesting brown colouration to the wings but I do believe this to be common with crows in the summer after molting their glossy spring breeding plumage.
I however do not make a habit of collecting downed crows unless I'm on private property, or hunting open country where the dead crows would be noticed by others as I don't care to "advertize" my actions. I mainly just leave them where they fall and let nature recycle them. Therefore, it can be assumed that I may have shot a few interesting "oddities" of crowdom without knowing.
Did however shoot one this past spring that caught my attention. Had a white tipped wing feather as per the attatched photos.