Ethiopian Bushcrow

The Ethiopian bushcrow is about 28 centimetres (11 in) long and weighs 130 grams (4.6 oz). The sexes look similar and are not sexually dimorphic. Overall it is pale grey with a black tail and wings. The head, mantle, scapulars, back, rump, and uppertail coverts are all a pale grey. The feathers on the forehead, upper ear-coverts, and throat fade into white. The bright azure skin around the bushcrow's eye is featherless and can be inflated, narrowing the blackish-brown eye into a slit. The feathers behind the eye are capable of moving to reveal an oblong pink patch of skin. The bird's black beak decurves into a sharply pointed tip and is relatively small for a corvid. This beak is 33 to 39 millimetres (1.3 to 1.5 in) long. The feathers on the bird's chin are fine and can form a small tuft when erected. The bushcrow's breast and flanks are pale grey, fading into white on the rear flanks, belly, and undertail. On the wings, the lesser and median upper-wing coverts are grey, while the rest of the wing is a slightly glossy blue-black. Its blue-black tail is relatively long and square-ended. Its legs are black. When the plumage becomes worn, the upperparts appear to have a brownish tinge. The juvenile Ethiopian bushcrow is slightly duller than the adult, and the feathers of the body and upperwings are fringed with creamy-fawn. …

This species is endemic to central-southern Ethiopia. It lives in a small area circumscribed by the towns of Yabelo, Borena, Mega, and Arero in Sidamo Province, and settles in wildlife under protection within Yabelo Wildlife Sanctuary and Borana National Park. Its total range covers about 2,400 square kilometres (930 sq mi). The Ethiopian bushcrow lives in flat savanna covered with mature acacia and Commiphora thornbushes. The bird prefers open short-grass savannas with scattered stands of these mature thornbushes. The soil must be deep and rich to support the bushcrow. It is most numerous when these stands are next to agricultural fields. For many years it was unknown why the species could be completely absent from areas of suitable habitat near seemingly identical but inhabited land. However recent research has revealed that the bird appears to inhabit an area with a very precise average temperature extreme, all of the seemingly suitable but uninhabited surrounding lands actually have a slightly higher average temperature that appears to prevent the birds from successfully colonizing. It is also not found near the scattered broadleaf woodland made up of Combretum and Terminalia. Its habitat is between 1,300 and 1,800 metres (4,300 and 5,900 ft) above sea level.

The Ethiopian bushcrow is normally found in groups of about six birds. This species does not migrate.

Diet. The bushcrow feeds both on the ground and in trees. It begins foraging at sunrise. While foraging, a bushcrow can be alone, in a pair, or in a group of six or seven other bushcrows. A foraging bushcrow digs vigorously in the soil while its beak is held slightly open to catch any insects it unearths. When it catches something, it carries it to the nearest tree or bush, pins it down with its foot, and kills and eats the prey. This species has also been seen using its beak to tear apart rotten wood and inspecting cattle dung in the search for food. It may also land on the backs of cattle to search for parasites. It can also chase flying insects, which it does on foot, abruptly changing direction and taking flying leaps after its prey. It often mixes with white-crowned starlings, red-billed hornbills, red-billed buffalo weavers, and superb starlings while foraging. When hunting in the trees, it is capable of walking atop horizontal branches and jumping upwards towards the crown, then descending in a glide from the crown to the ground. It eats primarily invertebrates and specifically insects, including termites. Larvae and pupae, especially of Coeloptera moths, are eaten as well as the adults.

Reproduction. …