 Book cover | |
| Author | Esther Woolfson |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Maureen Beattie |
| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Published | 2008 |
| Publisher | Granta |
| Pages | 337 |
| ISBN | 9781847080295 |
Corvus: A Life With Birds by Esther Woolfson is a non-fiction book about a family which adopts various corvids; a rook named Chicken, a magpie named Spike, and a crow named Ziki. [1] [2] It is Woolfson's first book. [3]
The book details the family's bird rescues, mostly consisting of crows. [1] The rook Chicken was adopted by Woolfson as a fledgling and she began feeding the bird a diet of minced meat, eggs, and nuts. [2] Chicken's full name is Madame Chickeboumskaya, after an American drag queen. [4] Chicken has a habit of hoarding food in boot laces, using a table to incubate infertile eggs, and following Woolfson around the house. [1] The rook is able to go wherever she wants to in the house and she "sleeps, bathes, roosts, and preens" in Woolfson's office. [2] Chicken acts similar to a cat or dog and was 18 years old when the book was written. Woolfson's life with Spike, Ziki, and other birds are documented. [5] Interspersed in the book is information about bird experts and the science about the birds. [1]
Katheen Yale of Orion Magazine said, "As human and wildlife habitats continue to overlap in a struggle for resources, Haupt’s Crow Planet and Woolfson’s Corvus both question, then show us, how to coexist with what Haupt calls "this slight discomfort." And even how to "rejoice in its meaning."" [6] Jennl Frazer of The Jewish Chronicle wrote that "Woolfson's gentle, humorous prose style offers a delightful insight into an unfamiliar world, and if in the mix she throws in a little medieval history here, and a little environmental science there, it's all to the good." [5] Tim Dee of The Guardian gave a mixed review concluding with, "By the end, much as I had enjoyed this book, I was egging on the hawks." [1]
Maureen Beattie read part of the book in five BBC Radio 4 episodes in 2008 as Book of the Week. [7]
Corvus is a genus of birds including species commonly known as crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws.
Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In common English, they are known as the crow family, or, more technically, corvids. Currently 133 species are included in this family. The genus Corvus, including the jackdaws, crows, rooks, and ravens, makes up over a third of the entire family. Corvids are the largest passerines.
The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.
The hooded crow is a Eurasian bird species in the genus Corvus. Widely distributed, it is also known locally as Scotch crow and Danish crow. In Ireland, it is called caróg liath or grey crow, as it is in the Slavic languages and in Danish. It is called "mist crow" (Nebelkrähe) in German, and "dolman crow" in Hungarian. Found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East, it is an ashy grey bird with black head, throat, wings, tail, and thigh feathers, as well as a black bill, eyes, and feet. Like other corvids, it is an omnivorous and opportunistic forager and feeder.
The Torresian crow, also called the Australian crow or Papuan crow, is a passerine bird in the crow family native to the north and west of Australia and nearby islands in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The species has a black plumage, beak and mouth with white irises. The base of the feathers on the head and neck are white. The Torresian crow is slightly larger with a more robust bill than the morphologically similar little crow.
The little crow is an Australian species of crow, very similar to the Torresian crow in having white bases to the neck and head feathers but slightly smaller and with a slightly smaller bill. It has the same white iris that distinguish the Australian species from all other Corvus except a few island species to the north of Australia, and one from Eurasia, the jackdaw. Like the Australian raven, this species has a blue ring around the pupil.
The forest raven, also commonly known as the Tasmanian raven, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae native to Tasmania and parts of southern Victoria, such as Wilsons Promontory and Portland. Populations are also found in parts of New South Wales, including Dorrigo and Armidale. Measuring 50–53 cm (20–21 in) in length, it has all-black plumage, beak and legs. As with the other two species of raven in Australia, its black feathers have grey bases. Adults have white irises; younger birds have dark brown and then hazel irises with an inner blue rim. New South Wales populations are recognised as a separate subspecies C. tasmanicus boreus, but appear to be nested within the Tasmanian subspecies genetically.
The little raven is a species of the family Corvidae that is native to southeastern Australia. An adult individual is about 48–50 cm (19–19.5 in) in length, with completely black plumage, beak, and legs; as with all Australian species of Corvus, the black feathers have a grey base, and the iris of the adult bird is white . Although the little raven was first named by Gregory Mathews in 1912, it was only in 1967 that there was consensus to separate it from the Australian raven as a distinct species.
The pied crow is a widely distributed African bird species in the crow genus.
The western jackdaw, also known as the Eurasian jackdaw, the European jackdaw, or simply the jackdaw, is a passerine bird in the crow family. Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa; it is mostly resident, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in the winter. Four subspecies are recognised, which differ mainly in the colouration of the plumage on the head and nape. Linnaeus first described it formally, giving it the name Corvus monedula. The common name derives from the word jack, denoting "small", and daw, a less common synonym for "jackdaw", and the native English name for the bird.
The American crow is a large passerine bird species of the family Corvidae. It is a common bird found throughout much of North America. American crows are the New World counterpart to the carrion crow and the hooded crow. Although the American crow and the hooded crow are very similar in size, structure and behavior, their calls and visual appearance are different. The American crow, nevertheless, occupies the same ecological niche that the hooded crow and carrion crow do in Eurasia.
The Cape crow or black crow is slightly larger than the carrion crow and is completely black with a slight gloss of purple in its feathers. It has proportionately longer legs, wings and tail too and has a much longer, slimmer bill that seems to be adapted for probing into the ground for invertebrates. The head feathers have a coppery-purple gloss and the throat feathers are quite long and fluffed out in some calls and displays.
The large-billed crow, formerly referred to widely as the jungle crow, is a widespread Asian species of crow. It is very adaptable and is able to survive on a wide range of food sources, making it capable of colonizing new areas, due to which it is often considered a nuisance, especially on islands. It has a large bill, which is the source of its scientific name macrorhynchos and it is sometimes known by the common name thick-billed crow. It can also be mistaken for a common raven. Johann Georg Wagler first described the species from a holotype obtained from Java in the year 1827. The eastern jungle crow and Indian jungle crow were once considered conspecific and together called the jungle crow.
The Hawaiian crow or ʻalalā is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae, that is currently extinct in the wild, though reintroduction programs are underway. It is about the size of the carrion crow at 48–50 cm (19–20 in) in length, but with more rounded wings and a much thicker bill. It has soft, brownish-black plumage and long, bristly throat feathers; the feet, legs and bill are black. Today, the Hawaiian crow is considered the most endangered of the family Corvidae. They are recorded to have lived up to 18 years in the wild, and 28 years in captivity. Some Native Hawaiians consider the Hawaiian crow an ʻaumakua.
Corvus is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the family Corvidae. The genus includes species commonly known as crows, ravens and rooks; there is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", and these appellations have been assigned to different species chiefly on the basis of their size, crows generally being smaller than ravens.
The Banggai crow is a member of the crow family from Banggai regency in the province of Central Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is listed as critically endangered by IUCN. It was feared extinct, but was finally rediscovered during surveys on Peleng Island off the southeast coast of Sulawesi by Indonesian ornithologist Mochamad Indrawan in 2007 and 2008.
The Bougainville crow is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae.
The rook is a member of the Corvidae in the passerine order of birds. It is found in the Palearctic, its range extending from Scandinavia and western Europe to eastern Siberia. It is a large, gregarious, black-feathered bird, distinguished from similar species by the whitish featherless area on the face. Rooks nest collectively in the tops of tall trees, often close to farms or villages, the groups of nests being known as rookeries.
Maureen Jane Beattie is an Irish-born, Scottish actress of both stage and screen.
Esther Woolfson is a British writer.