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Crows (Corvidae)

House Crow (Corvus splendens) - HBW 14, p. 618

French: Corbeau familier German: Glanzkrähe Spanish: Cuervo Indio
Other common names: Indian (House) Crow, Grey-necked/Colombo Crow

Taxonomy: Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817, Bengal, India.
Possibly close to, and perhaps an early offshot of, the "C. macrorhynchos complex", as suggested by head and bill shape; overlaps with members of that group, but somewhat ecologically separated. Races zugmayeri and protegatus intergrade with nominate in India. Birds from Maldive Is described as race maldevicus, but characters suggest ancestry of mixed races, and perhaps introduced on the islands long ago; considered best treated within protegatus. Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

  • zugmayeri Laubmann, 1913 - SE Iran and C & S Pakistan E to NW & NC India.
  • splendens Vieillot, 1817 - most of peninsular India (excluding NW part and coastal Kerala) and Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
  • protegatus Madarász, 1904 - SW India (S from N Kerala and W Tamil Nadu), Sri Lanka, Laccadive Is and Maldive Is.
  • insolens Hume, 1874 - extreme S China (S Xizang and S Yunnan) and Myanmar (including Tenasserim).

Sounds

6 recordings
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