Hooded Crow

I have seen many  Hooded Crows on my  visits to Finland but was amazed to see one on my bird table in Wiltshire.  Is this common? Angela 

  • Or another corvid, suffering from leucistic tendencies, possibly
  • It's very unlikely but not totally impossible, while in the UK Hooded Crows are seen more in Scotland they do wander south occasionally into but maybe a check with the recorder for Wiltshire would be worthwhile. It could also be a captive bred bird here in N. Yorkshire a local cage bird breeder has had a Hoodie in the past but I'm not sure of its history. After all that Robbos Jackdaw seems most likely.
  • Welcome to the forum, Angela. I hope you will let us know if other folk near you have also seen the bird. Checking the Wiltshire Ornithological Society's recent sightings page, www.wiltshirebirds.co.uk/.../recent-sightings.html, there are no reports of a Hooded Crow in February, but as Pete says, it might be possible. More likely to be what he and Robbo suggested, or as PB mentions, a Jackdaw or some other Corvid whose leucism coincidentally mimics a Hooded Crow. The sightings pages only seem to include the rarer Corvids, Ravens, presumably because reporting the more numerous and widely spread species would take up too much room. They also do not include any standard garden birds, but mainly winter visitors or unusual over-wintering birds such as Blackcaps, although waders and birds of prey are listed.  You could (or may have already) also check Birdguides www.birdguides.com/.../ or various social media pages. We have only seen Hooded Crows when on holiday 7 years ago in the Isle of Man, at the southern tip of the island, but we hope to seen them again on some future visit to there or to Scotland.

  • I understand from some of my Scottish contacts that the Hoodies are getting scarcer in Scotland because of interbreeding with regular Carrion Crows.