See that brightly colored area on the corner of the bird’s developing beak? That’s called the gape, and the bright color that flashes when they open their mouths is a powerful signal that tells parents to “insert food here”. Two of them are color-coded, did you catch them? Ah yes, gape and eye color. Next let’s look at the babies themselves, which is where the three remaining differences are. Really, you need look no further at this point to know immediately that the photo on the right is an impostor but let’s keep going because it’s fun.
Of course you’ll find crow nests with a bit of string, fabric or grass (especially for lining) but the bulk of the nest is always made of pinky-wide sticks. Knowing that, the material used in the nest on the right should jump out as a red flag. Robins will always use mud as a binder and bushtit nests will always look like cozy sleeping bags made of moss. Sure, some birds can happily use some ribbon in place of straw (like orioles) or build nests in old shoes just as easily as in gutters (like bewick’s wrens) but the basic style is always the same. So take a minute and see what jumps out at you….įigured it out (or given up)? The first thing to know is that all bird species are very specific in terms of both nest materials and nest construction. Because, not unlike my favorite activity in the Highlights magazines I anxiously parsed through in those waiting rooms, there are 4 things that are different between these two photos and it’s up to you to find them. And this is the moment where, as a scientist, these photos elevate from being simply another source of annoying misinformation (which, they are) to the kind detective work that childhood doctor visits fostered a deep love for. It doesn’t make you a complete crow rookie to make this mistake, but there are some key things wrong here. You’ve got three, black, altricial baby birds in a nest and really, they’re not terribly un-crow like. But there’s a new photo circulating social media, and it makes for a much more compelling crow doppelganger If, somehow, these images are new to you feel free to check out my post fully debunking them, as I will not dedicate any further time to them here.
By now, most of us have come across these images of “baby crows” so often it induces more of a yawn than a fit of aggravation.