Crow (Animal Series)

by Boria Sax

The carrion crow is almost entirely black, though its feathers show a purple or green gloss in certain lights. The hooded crow has a large area of pale grey on the back of the neck and lower breast. Otherwise, the two subspecies are almost identical, and they interbreed freely where their ranges overlap. They have probably only diverged since two populations were separated during the last ice age, and their combined range covers most of Eurasia. The hooded crow is generally found in the far North, the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, while the carrion crow is common in Western Europe, Korea and Japan.