Collared Crow Corvus torquatus ranges patchily from Liaoning to Gansu and Yunnan, also Hainan and northern Vietnam. HABITAT & BEHAVIOR Lowlands, often near agricultural land, especially rice paddies near streams and scattered trees. Avoids dense forests. Like most crows, feeds almost entirely on ground, but unlike most crows consumes little carrion. ID & COMPARISON Unmistakable. At first glance or from a distance may be mistaken for Daurian Jackdaw Coloeus dauuricus, but Daurian Jackdaw is noticeably smaller and stockier and is completely white below throat. Collared Crow has greyish-white plumage restricted to nape, upper mantle, sides of neck, and breast. Rest of plumage glossy black. Juvenile has looser plumage with white areas washed grey. In size, head shape (low, flat crown), and bill, very much like Carrion Crow Corvus corone, but Carrion Crow has entirely black plumage. BARE PARTS Bill slender, pointed, black. Feet black. VOICE Typical corvid array of caws and croaks, higher pitched than Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos. — Craig Brelsford
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Daniel Bengtsson served as chief ornithological consultant for Craig Brelsford’s Photographic Field Guide to the Birds of China, from which this species description is drawn.
