The soundtrack to my recent visits to the marsh has been the constant cacophony of a chorus of countless cawing crows. The crows seem to be everywhere, swooping in large groups from one grove of trees to another.
I have tried numerous times to get some shots of these American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) without much success, but recently I took an image that I like. The day was cloudy and heavily overcast when photographed this crow in flight. When I started working on the image the sky turned almost white. Normally, I would not have been happy with that result, but somehow this stark background works for me for this crow.
I thought about going completely black-and-white for this image, but I like the way that some of the feathers appear to be a lighter shade of brown. Is the crow molting, perhaps?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Looks like vulture wings on a crow. Interesting.
I did lighten the shadows, but didn’t change the colors at all. It does look a lot like the pattern of a turkey vulture’s feathers, which is why I wondered if perhaps the crow was molting.
Let us know if you find out.
Magnificent
Thanks, Dan. Despite the fact that crows are everywhere, I had a heck of a time getting a decent shot of one.
I’ve been trying to get pictures of what I guess are gulls that have taken to the ice in the CT river. I have a couple of shots of the entire flock swarming but nothing dramatic like this. I should spend more time but Friday it was -2 when I was there. I need to be more patient. You show that it pays off.
Crows are smart birds and you don’t often get away with pointing things at them. When I try it they usually fly away immediately.
I learned recently that in addition to “a murder of crows,” we can also refer to a group of crows as “a storytelling.” (See http://palomaraudubon.org/collective.html) I think this is delightful!
Groupings of birds have struck strange names. I tend to refer to most of them as flocks.