The collared crow (''Corvus torquatus''), also known as the ring-necked crow or white-collared crow, is a member of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Corvidae Corvidae is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan Family (biology), family of Songbird, oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, Rook (bird), rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and Nutcracker (bird), nutcrackers ...

native to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and north of Vietnam.

Description

It is about 52–55 cm in length—the same size or slightly larger than the

carrion crow The carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae, native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic. Taxonomy and systematics The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus ...

(''C. corone''), with proportionately slightly longer wings, tail and bill. A sleek and handsome bird, it has glossy black plumage except for the back of the neck, upper back (mantle), and a broad band around the lower breast that is white. The bill, legs and feet are black. It sometimes flies with its feet hanging down below the body in a characteristically "lazy" way. The voice is a loud ''"kaaar"'' repeated several times with other slight variations on it to suit the occasion. It also like many other corvids, utters strange clipping and clicking sounds during its head bowing display to another bird.

Distribution and ecology

The range of this species is essentially

, covering large areas of the country though not further north than

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. It occurs in plains and low lying river valleys in fairly open country and cultivated regions and is a common sight in paddy fields. It tends to avoid large towns and cities and is predominantly a rural species. Food is sought mainly on the ground where a large range of items are taken, such as

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

s and other invertebrates (even from shallow water), grains, especially

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

and it also searches among refuse for suitable food items left by humans. It appears to take less carrion than other species but will if the opportunity arises, and will also take eggs and nestlings. The nest is usually in a tree and is plastered with mud. There are usually 3–4 eggs laid. It was classified as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by the

International Union for the Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

in 2004 before being upgraded to

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

status in 2008. It is considered a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

as of 2018.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2579959 collared crow collared crow Birds of China collared crow Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Birds of Vietnam Birds of Hong Kong Vulnerable biota of Asia