Torresian Crow Corvus orru Scientific name definitions

48–53 cm; male 430–700 g, female 430–650 g. Medium-sized crow with rather stout bill, short throat hackles; compact, blunt-winged and short-tailed in flight. Nominate race is entirely glossy black, with white feather bases on head and neck; iris white, sometimes pale blue (in West Papuan Is and locally in N New Guinea); bill and legs black. Sexes similar. Juvenile is duller than adult, with pink gape, eyes blue-grey (fledgling) to brown; immature has eyes brown, becoming hazel. Race latirostris is similar to nominate, but slightly stouter bill, and eyes bluish-white (Tanimbar Is) or white (Babar); cecilae is like nominate, but slightly longer-winged and longer-tailed.

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All terrestrial habitat types within range, from montane rainforest (1500 m) to littoral. Common in lightly wooded and open habitats, farmland, urban areas and other modified habitats. In Australian arid zone largely restricted to wooded watercourses.

Resident. In humid areas juveniles, immatures and non-breeding adults form mobile, dispersive flocks of typically 20–150 individuals that congregate at large communal roosts; four such non-breeders (adult and immature, of indeterminate social status) used home ranges of up to 2250 ha (mean 700 ha). Some birds move between islands in Torres Strait.

Omnivorous predator and scavenger, strongly granivorous. Feeds mainly on invertebrates, small birds, eggs, nestlings, also carrion, including beachcast marine life; sometimes frogs and reptiles (lizards, turtle hatchlings), rarely fish. Also seeds, fruit, other plant material, occasionally nectar. Sometimes attacks weak or moribund lambs. Opportunistic, feeding mainly on the ground in open habitats, sometimes in trees and standing crops. Forages mainly by walking and gleaning from the ground or low vegetation, sometimes gleaning and snatching prey from foliage. Commonly patrols roads, sheep paddocks, rubbish dumps and human habitation for carrion and refuse. Sometimes dunks food in water before eating. Sometimes drops prey from height; robs raptors of prey. Avoids poisonous dorsal glands of cane toad (Bufo marinus) by turning carcass on its back and eating from belly. Caches or buries surplus food in such places as hole in cliff, or under soil, grass or leaves, later retrieving stored food. Forages in pairs and in small to large flocks.

Series of high-pitched (tenor), nasal, usually rapid and staccato caws, although utters some longer and harsher notes; typically 3–8 notes, sometimes with final 1–3 lower and slower, terminal note occasionally drawn out and descending, more honking than calls of C. bennetti. Also high-pitched yodelling caw, softer bubbling, croaking and long creaking calls, and single guttural notes.

Recorded in all months in Australia, with eggs Aug–Jun in N and Jun–Dec in S of range; in New Guinea active nests Sept–Oct, eggs in Jan and Mar, and juveniles and large fledglings in Jan and early Apr; failed pairs renest. Monogamous. Solitarily breeder in well-dispersed pairs. Nest a bowl 38 cm wide and 19 cm deep, made from sticks, lined with plant fibres, wool, hair or cotton waste, built 3–45 m (usually more than 10 m) above ground in fork of tree or in artificial structure such as utility pole, tower or windmill platform. Clutch 1–7 eggs, usually 5; incubation by female, period 19–20 days; chicks fed by both sexes, nestling period 38–48 days (mean 41 days); young remain in natal territory for 2–3 months, or occasionally until following breeding season. Nests often parasitized by Channel-billed Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae). For 138 eggs in 30 clutches, hatching success 70% and fledging success 22%; other samples gave 77% hatching success from 43 eggs in ten nests, and 17 young from nine successful attempts out of 15 nests. First breeding when at least 2 years old (only white-eyed individuals recorded as breeding).

Not globally threatened. Generally abundant and widespread; has increased in range and numbers with spread of agriculture and urbanization. Adult breeding pairs have large home range of c. 130 ha. In arid areas flocks tend to be both rare and small, numbering fewer than 20 birds. Roosts contain up to 1000 individuals. Benefits from artificial food sources, and is common in modified habitats. Perceived as a pest in sheep-rearing lands, orchards, crops, around poultry and in cities, and consequently is legally unprotected and is persecuted by shooting, trapping and poisoning in farmland (with little apparent effect on numbers). Well represented in protected areas.