A St. Helens mega

A hooded crow which was found in stubble fields just east of Haydock island on Monday is only the second ever known record in St Helens and the first since March 1979. Despite being a mainly sedentary species breeding in Ireland, North West Scotland and the Isle of Man, hooded crows are occasionally recorded in north west England and more regularly in North Wales, and I've seen them on several occasions on  the Formby mosslands and fairly frequently on Anglesey. As recently as two weeks ago I saw one at Morfa Madryn near Llanfairfechan on the North Wales coast. Hooded crows in these areas tend to be coastal, probably because of pressure from territory holding carrion crows and inland hoodies are rare in our area.

The origin of these birds is unclear. Although hooded crows breeding in the British Isles are regarded as resident and sedentary there is in fact some movement of birds which may account for occurances in our area. Also some Scandinavian populations are migratory and an annual smattering of birds on the east coast of England each year probably orginate from these populations. A drift west from the east coast is a possibility and it's also possible that some of the birds in north west England and Wales are ship assisted.

The species shows clinal variation, with larger and darker birds in the north and west of Europe, and smaller and paler birds towards the south and east. This bird appears to be quite large, but it also seems quite bright and pale which is something of a contradiction if we are to seek clues to the birds provenance from its plumage. Perhaps it is the brightness of plumage which makes the bird look larger than it actually is.Note however the size of the bill and compare with the photographs at the bottom of this page.

Hooded crow does hybridise with carrion crow, but in my opinion the photographs here clearly show that there is no hint of hybridisation in this individual.

A few more hoodies for comparison.....
Here are a few other photos of hoodies from my travels. Obviously light conditions vary as does the size of individuals within a population.

Ireland, 2016. To my mind this is the closest fit to the Haydock bird, large size, pale grey, big chunky  bill.

Ullapool, north west Scotland July 2017. Hard to be sure, but this doesn't look quite such a big bird to me. Certainly pale enough though.

Paphos, Cyprus December 2014. This looks a lightweight bird with a much smaller bill.

Holyhead, Anglesey 2016. Allowing for the fact that it was pouring with rain when I took this photo, this bird looks quite dark. It also looks really small, almost jackdaw like.