Is Bangor, Maine Recently Home to a New Type of Crow?

I unapologetically admit I like to watch birds.

I like my hummingbird feeder more than most things in life. I can legit relax for an hour and just watch the feeder. And while hummingbirds are deceptively vicious to each other, they're still fun. They divebomb each other, chase each other, and any other semi-aggressive things that little half-ounce birds can inflict upon each other.

But a bird in particular I find fascinating is the regular, old crow. They're notoriously smart birds. I have a friend that trades presents with a crow. They trade off shiny objects in the birdbath, and my buddy posts videos from the cam he has installed. But around here in Bangor, you might here a weird sounding crow that may leave you scratching your head a bit.

Bangor is now home to the Fisher Crow.

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

Fisher crows are generally from more southern parts of the country. Down in areas like Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma, they're quite common. But in Maine, they're not exactly new, but they only were found in one spot for decades. For years, you'd only find one little pocket of breeding fisher crows in the Brunswick area, since like the 70's.

Photo by Dr. Yogesh Namdev on Unsplash

And it stayed that way forever. Birders were kind of perplexed, if not intrigued, by the idea that this one breed of crow, stayed solo in one area for so long. Now, all these years later, we're starting to see and hear them in the Bangor area. What really sets them apart from other crows, is their call. Or "cawl". Pun fully intended...

What do they sound like?

They look just like the kind of crow we're most used to. But, their call is much different. It sounds a lot like a regular crow, but is described as more "nasally". I'm guessing you can imagine something like a regular crow with a bit of a cold. The other main difference is that they have a very quick, almost two-syllable call, and regular crows only make one. And regular crows can even get a bit nasally during breeding season, but again, just the one syllable. Check it out...

So while this may not be as exciting as the visit from the Stellar's Sea Eagle, it is pretty cool to know that even in this day and age, we can see something new come along to the area, even if it's suspiciously just like something we're already familiar with. It's not everyday a new bird comes to town.

In case you ever want to mix it up...