One good thing

Now, you know that CD belongs to the Brave Three? As I see Droopy and Three together when CD is absent and CD on his own, I assume that Droopy and Three are the mated pair. Also I thought that CD's level of curiosity and playfulness suggested that he was a young crow.

I know from the crow course I did that juveniles often stay with the parents. This may be because there are no spare territories or that the juvenile has not got a mate - but as male crows do not tend to mate until I think they are three or four, that would suggest that most males would stay at home for some period. That does not seem to be the case. they may forage and roost with a flock just because they want to.

Now, if they do stay at home, it can be beneficial for the family as they help to defend the territory, which CD does, and also help to feed the next year's brood. For both of these reasons, family stability is good for crows. Staying in the natal patch seems to be called philopatry.

Anyway, scientists have studied this and wondered if extra food in the home territory would encourage philopatry - with all the associated benefits. And it does!

Here's the abstract of an article published by the Royal Society here:

Kin-based societies, where families represent the basic social unit, occur in a relatively small number of vertebrate species. In the majority of avian kin societies, families form when offspring prolong their association with the parents on the natal territory. Therefore, the key to understanding the evolution of families in birds is to understand natal philopatry (i.e. the tendency to remain on the natal territory). It has been shown that, within populations, the strength of the association between parents and offspring (i.e. family stability) increases when offspring dispersal is constrained by external environmental factors, but it is unclear whether and how family wealth influences juvenile dispersal decisions. Here, we show that young carrion crows (Corvus corone corone) from territories that were food-supplemented year-round were more philopatric and more likely to help at their family's nest than the unfed ones. The results suggest that offspring philopatry and helping behaviour are influenced by the quality of ‘home’ and that the availability of food resources positively affects the cohesion of the family.

Two cool things: firstly, I am enhancing the Brave Three's wealth and secondly, how bizarre (and bizarre that I had not noticed) that Corvus corone corone is so like COVID and corona and crone.

Anyway, I was delighted to see that I have been doing the crow family a good service.