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Tamaulipas Crow

Corvus imparatusOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Crows and Jays (Corvidae)

Tamaulipas Crow Breeding Male Portrait
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General

Tamaulipas Crow: Small crow, shiny black overall with purple-tinted upperparts and duller purple to blue-green tinted underparts. Bill is small and short. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Tamaulipas Crow: Regular visitor to extreme southern Texas from Mexico. Prefers arid country with thickets and brush such as mesquite; also ranches and farms, as well as along woodland streams.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"craw", "khurr", "creow"

Interesting Facts

  • The Tamaulipas Crow is the counterpart of the Sinaloa Crow of the Pacific slope; in fact, the two are considered conspecific by some.
  • The voice of this Crow is unusual and unlike most other species of the genus Corvus. It has a low croaking sound rather like a frog and a call that is described as a soft "gar-lik".
  • Unknown north of the U.S.-Mexico border before the 1960s, it has in recent years become a regular visitor to the Brownsville, Texas region.
  • A group of crows has many collective nouns, including a "cauldron", "congress", "horde", "murder", and "muster" of crows.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Tamaulipas Crow
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Corvus imparatus
Length14 - 15 Inches
Wingspan26.5 Inches

Tamaulipas Crow

Tamaulipas Crow: Small crow, shiny black overall with purple-tinted upperparts and duller purple to blue-green tinted underparts. Bill is small and short. Feeds on grains, fruits, insects, carrion, refuse, and eggs and young of other birds. Rapid direct flight with steady wing beats.

● Song: "craw", "khurr", "creow"

● Foraging & Feeding: Tamaulipas Crow: Eats insects, grains, carrion, refuse, eggs and young of other birds, and some fruits. Walks and hops on the ground as it forages.

● Breeding & nesting: Tamaulipas Crow: Four to five blue to blue-gray eggs with brown or olive buff streaks are laid in a nest made of sticks and plant fibers, lined with softer materials, and built in a tree. Incubation ranges from 17 to 18 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Tamaulipas Crow: Chihuahuan Raven is larger with wedge-shaped tail. American Crow is slightly larger, but best distinguished by voice. Great-tailed Grackle has white yellow eyes, longer keel-shaped tail, and purple sheen.

Flight Pattern

Rapid direct flight on steadily beating wings. Glides from altitude to perch; glides between perches and from perch to ground.
Tamaulipas Crow Breeding Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Tamaulipas Crow: Regular visitor to extreme southern Texas from Mexico. Prefers arid country with thickets and brush such as mesquite; also ranches and farms, as well as along woodland streams.
BreedingMonogamous, Colonial
PopulationUncommon to fairly common
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight8 - 9 Ounces