[CT Birds] Fish Crow in Connecticut: Part I. State Check-Lists

[Linda & Steve Broker]

The recent discussion of Fish Crows in Connecticut, initiated by Dave  
Provencher, encouraged me to go to my Christmas Bird Count  
spreadsheets for data on the occurrence of Fish Crow on these early  
winter censuses.  As we know, this is a species that has expanded its  
range and its numbers along the Connecticut coastline and up river  
valleys over the past decades.  Early editions of Peterson [A Field  
Guide to the Birds] describe Fish Crow as "seldom far from tidewater;  
from s. New England to Florida and along Gulf to e. Texas."  The 5th  
edition of the AOU Check-List (1957) states that Fish Crow is  
"Resident on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Rhode Island,  
Connecticut, and New York southward . . ."  Both the 6th edition  
(1983) and the 7th edition (1998) of the AOU Check-List describe the  
species' distribution as "Resident locally from New York (northwest  
to Ithaca) and Massachusetts south along the Atlantic-Gulf coast to  
southern Florida, and west to southern Texas; inland along major  
river systems . . ."  This more recent information reflects the  
steady range expansion of Fish Crow into southern New England, which  
has been taking place for the last forty years.

In a second posting, I'll give the CBC numbers for Fish Crow in  
Connecticut since 1950-51.  Here, I duplicate the descriptions of  
Fish Crow in Connecticut from the state's check-lists, beginning with  
Linsley, 1843:

Fish Crow in Connecticut
Part I. State Check-Lists

Linsley, Rev. James H. 1843.
             “Fish Crow, Stratford”  [A Catalogue of the Birds of  
Connecticut]

Merriam, C. Hart. 1887.
             “This species must be regarded as a rare summer visitor  
so far north as this State, although it has been seen in  
Massachusetts . . .”  [A Review of the Birds of Connecticut]

Burr, Freeman F., et al. 1908.
             “Common Summer Resident.  Occasionally nests in  
Marvelwood and Lighthouse Point woods.”  [List of the Birds of the  
New Haven Region]

Sage, Bishop, and Bliss. 1913.
             “A rather rare resident near the coast, and extending  
some distance up the larger rivers.
             Distribution.  Small colonies and isolated nests have  
been found near the shore of the Sound at Woodmont, Milford, and  
Stratford; at Niantic; New Haven; Fairfield and vicinity; various  
points in Fairfield County; along the Housatonic Valley, as far north  
as Gaylordsville; along the Connecticut River.”  [observers omitted]  
[The Birds of Connecticut]

Bagg, Aaron Clark, and Samuel Atkins Eliot, Jr. 1937.
             “South of us, the Fish Crow is a rather rare species in  
southern Connecticut, recorded as far up the Housatonic as  
Gaylordsville and as far east as Niantic.”  [Birds of the Connecticut  
Valley in Massachusetts]

Zeranski, Joseph D., and Thomas R. Baptist. 1990.
             “Status:  an uncommon to fairly common coastal migrant  
from March to mid-May and from late July to November; locally  
uncommon to fairly common in early winter along the coast and inland  
along the Connecticut River.  Small numbers can be found locally  
through the winter season.  It nests locally along the coast and  
inland along large rivers.
             Historical Notes:  It was first seen at Springfield,  
Massachusetts, in 1896.  The first winter record was in 1902 at New  
London and next in 1903 at North Haven.  By 1913 it was “resident”  
along the coast east to Niantic, north along the Housatonic River to  
New Milford and in the Connecticut River valley.  From the 1870s to  
the early 1920s it had been called, in succession, “rare”, “not  
rare”, “uncommon” and “lingering later into the fall”.
             “In the mid-1940s it was recorded three times in the  
Hartford area (HAS).  Its range expanded east along the coast to  
Rhode Island by 1946 and by the mid-1950s north along the Connecticut  
River into Massachusetts, where it was “occasionally reported”.   
Increases were noted along Breeding Bird Survey routes in southern  
New England from 1965 to 1979.  It returned to the Hartford area in  
1976 after an absence of many years, and it wintered there by the  
early 1980s.  By the early 1980s, nesting had been reported well  
inland from salt and brackish waters in Connecticut.” [some omissions]
             [Connecticut Birds]

Hanisek, Greg. 2005.
             “Mainly coastal prior to the 1990s, Fish Crows have  
expanded throughout the state via the river valleys.  Their newer  
outposts have been established primarily, but not exclusively, in  
urban areas such as Waterbury, Hartford, Willimantic and Torrington.”
             The bar graph shows Fish Crow as “uncommon” from the  
last third of November through the first third of March, as “fairly  
common” for the remainder of the year, and breeding in Connecticut  
from the beginning of April through early June.  [“Connecticut Birds  
by the Season” – The Connecticut Warbler, 25(1) (January 2005]

Steve Broker
Cheshire