| CROWS and WEST NILE VIRUS Beginning in 2003, Seattle’s urban crow population will be impacted by West Nile virus. Some mosquito species that infect crows, jays, and other songbirds also bite and infect humans. Since crows are severely impacted by this virus, they, along with certain songbird species may serve as sentinels for potential local infections of humans. To contribute to local and national efforts to better understand how West Nile virus spreads and to develop methods to minimize its impacts on humans and wildlife alike, we are incorporating West Nile into our long-term study of urban crow and songbird populations in the Seattle are (in collaboration with local, state, and federal health agencies). For these efforts to be successful We Need Your Help. If you find a dead crow or blue Stellars jay in King or Snohomish County, please call the appropriate number below: |
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| West Nile Virus Hotline, King County:
206-205-4394 In addition or alternatively, you may email your resport to us at crow@u.washington.edu When reporting sightings of dead crows, it is crucial to include location information: street address (or nearest intersection), city, county. If the dead crow is banded, reporting its color combination and/or 7-digit USFWS band number is equally important. (See below) If the crow is unbanded, please note and report any cues to its age that you notice. To view a brief photographic guide to age cues, click here. For more information on Seattle King County Public Health’s West Nile Virus surveillance program view the linked PDF document which will give you instructions for disposing of dead birds or submitting them for testing. Click here to visit Seattle King County’s excellent West Nile virus general information webpage. We recommend that anyone concerned about the health risks of West Nile explore this site. If you live in Snohomish County, you may want to visit, Snohomish County's West Nile webpage. For more detailed information about our urban crow and songbird studies, click here |
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To enable identification of individual crows, we color band many crows as nestlings or breeding adults. Since we know the history of these birds, sightings of live banded crows or the recovery of dead banded crows is vitally important to our work with West Nile. When reporting sightings of banded crows (dead or alive), it is especially vital to include location information: street address (or nearest intersection), city, county.
You can report sightings of live or dead banded crows either by email or our report page. Please read the following instructions then click this link to the report page. Once you have submitted the sighting information, your browser will give you options of where to return.. When making crow observations please try your best to correctly identify the exact color combination of the crow's bands. We typically band our crows with two bands on each leg. One leg will have two plastic color bands and the other leg will have a plastic color band above a metal (gray) U.S. Fish and Wildlife band. Make sure you note which bands are on the bird's right leg, which bands are on the bird's left leg, and which colors are on top (closest to the bird's body). Remember, if the crow has its back to you, its right leg is on your right.
This bird has green over orange on its right leg and white over “gray” (actually a metal USFWS band with unique ID number) on its left leg. See chart of band colors below.
ALL SIGHTINGS: Please select from the colors provided in the chart above. When possible look especially carefully at bands that seem to be white or gray, as the metal band can appear to be either under different lighting conditions.
DEAD BIRD sightings: The single metal band is inscribed with a unique 7-digit USFWS identification number. If you can get close enough to read this number (especially if you are bagging the bird for testing or disposal according to instructions in the PDF file link above) please include it in your report.
LIVE BIRD sightings: If you use the survey page to report a sighting, please don't use commas when entering text. Also, in rare cases one or more of the bird's color bands may have 2 large white numbers or 2 white letters printed on them (e.g. 7 over 2). These markings are not as important for identification as the colors, but it is helpful if you can provide them. It is also helpful if you provide the activity of the bird at the time of your observation. There are six activities in the pulldown menu on the survey:
1. Foraging- actively eating or scanning for food
2. Perching- sitting on a limb or structure
3. Preening- manipulating feathers on its body or that of another bird
4. defending territory- chasing other birds out of the area and/or advertising
territory by display and vocalization
5. Being Dead- self-explanatory
6. Other- please provide a brief description of the activity in question 13,
if it is not provided as a choice in the pulldown menu
Thanks, in advance, for your participation in our research! Click to go to survey page.
REPORTING DEAD SONGBIRDS: Please report sightings of dead songbirds (no gulls or pigeons please) to crow@u.washington.edu. As with crows, include the location--street (or nearest intersection), city, county. As best you can, try to identify the species (e.g. robin, sparrow, starling, house finch, etc) or describe major characteristics: for example, relative size (about the size of a sparrow or chickadee) beak shape (sharply pointed vs. finch-like) and color pattern. If you own a digital camera, a photo attached to your email would be excellent.
For more information on the conservation of forest songbirds in the Puget Sound Area, click here