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Sinaloa Crow | Corvus sinaloae
Sinaloakraai | Cuervo sinaloense
The Sinaloa Crow is a small, glossy black crow of the Pacific lowlands of western Mexico. It lives in groups in open country, along the coast and in villages and towns. It was formerly treated together with Tamaulipas Crow as a single species; the call is the best difference.
Voice
A fairly high, clear call such as chaow or cheow, clearly higher and less hoarse than that of Tamaulipas Crow.
Recording: Barry Edmonston — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
34–38 cm. Entirely black with a purplish-blue gloss. Bill fairly slender and black, legs black, eye dark. Tail fairly short and square-ended. Smaller and slimmer than a raven.
Confusion species
Tamaulipas Crow Corvus imparatus looks almost identical but lives in north-eastern Mexico and has a low, croaking call. Northern Raven Corvus corax and Chihuahuan Raven Corvus cryptoleucus are much larger, with a heavy bill and a wedge-shaped tail. Male Great-tailed Grackles Quiscalus mexicanus have a yellow iris and a long, keeled tail.
Habitat
Open lowlands with trees, dry forest and forest edges, coastal plains, beaches, mangrove edges, palm groves, fields and orchards, and villages and towns. It eats insects, crabs and other invertebrates, carrion, refuse, fruit and seeds. It nests in trees.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Endemic to the Pacific lowlands of western Mexico, from southern Sonora through Sinaloa and Nayarit to about Colima.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Common in the lowlands around San Blas in Nayarit and around Mazatlán in Sinaloa, where groups forage on beaches, in villages and along roads. The high call is the best clue.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common within its range and well adapted to human-modified land.
Scientific name
Corvus sinaloae | Davis, 1958
Davis described the species in 1958 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Corvus was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Corvus is the Latin word for 'raven'. sinaloae means 'of Sinaloa', after the Mexican state where the species was described. The specimen the first description was based on came from Escuinapa, Sinaloa, Mexico.