Gray Crow Corvus tristis Scientific name definitions

51–56 cm; one bird 635 g. Medium-sized, long-tailed, scruffy crow with stout bill and bare pink facial skin ; sparse nasal and rictal bristles. Plumage is variable, blackish to dark brown or grey, with slightly glossy wings and tail; iris light blue; bill grey; legs pink to grey. Sexes similar. Juvenile much paler than adult, pale grey-brown above, whitish on head and below, appearing rather bleached, with brown eyes and white bill; immature is only marginally less pale, with pink bill and feet (birds with mottled grey-brown eyes are probably immature); takes three years to acquire darker adult plumage.

New Guinea, except lowlands of Trans-Fly; also West Papuan Is (Salawati, Batanta), Yapen I (in Geelvink Bay) and D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago.

Primary rainforest, forest edge, secondary growth, gardens, swamp-forest; lowlands to 1500 m. Sometimes visits open areas and riverbanks or sandbars.

Resident; flocks apparently locally mobile.

Feeds mainly on fruits in forest canopy ; also takes insects, especially when raising young, and sometimes scavenges. Forages often in noisy groups. Gleans in foliage and also on ground.

Series of plaintive, startled, rising caws , resembling yelping when several birds in chorus. Also utters hoarse, weak caw, whining caw, and bursts of excited hoarse caws.

Poorly known. Apparently breeds through dry season (austral autumn-spring); two nests found in Mar, nestlings in Oct to early Dec, and fledglings in Oct–Nov (including group of five fledglings and five adults in Oct). One nest was a bowl of sticks in outer fork near top of emergent deciduous tree over rainforest, contained four fully grown nestlings, attended apparently by only two adults; one nests in top of tree in primary forest and another high in large forest-edge tree. No information on clutch size; one alleged clutch of 2 eggs not attributable to this species. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Locally fairly common to common, and widespread. Often observed in flocks of up to ten individuals, rarely up to 50.