How many pests do crows eat in a year? What is the scientific name of crows? What contributions do crows make to humans?

crow: Doctor Qingdao

wū yā

Corvidae

Commonly known as "Old Bird" and "Old Crow". Class Aves, Corvidae. The whole body or most of the feathers are jet black, hence the name. Mostly nest in trees. They often fly and sing in groups, with a hoarse voice. Omnivorous on grains, insects, etc., its merits outweigh its faults, and it is a beneficial bird.

"Kafka" means "jackdaw" in Czech, and Kafka's father's shop uses the jackdaw as its emblem. To commemorate this unique writer, the asteroid 3412 discovered in 1983 was named after "Kafka". Japanese writer Haruki Murakami loves to read Kafka, and the name of one of his novels is "Kafka on the Shore". They are straight, with black feathers and green wings. They mostly live in groups in the woods or fields and feed on grains, fruits, and insects.

Edit species category of this paragraph

Common name for several black birds in the family Corvidae (order Passeriformes), smaller than most ravens, and with less thick beaks . More than 20 of the 30 species of the genus Corvus are called crow, and this name is widely borrowed. Common crows are the short-billed crow (C. brachyrhynchos) in North America and the small-billed crow (C. corone) in Eurasia. There are two subspecies of the small-billed crow (some consider them separate species): the carrion crow (C. c. corone) in Western Europe and East Asia; and the hooded crow (C. c. cornix). All crows are about 50 centimeters (20 inches) long and are glossy black, while the hooded crow is gray. Other species include the house crow (C. splendens), which is distributed from India to Malaysia (has been introduced to eastern Africa); the spotted crow (C. albus, the African white-necked crow) in tropical Africa has a white neck and chest; the crow in southeastern and central North America

Fish crow (C. ossifragus).

Crows are omnivorous and eat grains, berries, insects, carrion and the eggs of other birds. Although it helps control economic pests, it is still targeted by farmers because it damages crops. It mainly forages on the ground and has a steady gait. They like to live in groups, sometimes in groups of tens of thousands, but most species do not nest in groups. Each pair usually builds a nest on a high branch of a tree and lays 5 or 6 light green to yellowish green eggs with dark spots. Wild crows can live 13 years, while those in captivity can live more than 20 years. Some caged crows kept as trophies can "talk," and some lab-raised crows can learn to count to three or four and find marked food in boxes.

Other families are called crow, such as bird-of-paradise (also known as paradise crow), currawong (also known as piping-crow), drongo (also known as drongo) King crow (king crow), kokako (also known as wattled crow) and rockfowl (also known as bald crow).

Edit this paragraph's living habits

Bald-nosed crows build nests in high trees in the vast plains from eastern to northeastern China. They are all black, with no feathers at the base of the bill and back, revealing gray-white skin. . White-necked crows build nests in tall trees from the plains to low mountains in southern North China. They rarely form groups. They have black body feathers and a distinctive white collar. Jackdaws are small crows that are common in the vast mountainous areas of northern China and near mountainous areas. They have a white chest and abdomen with a white collar, and the rest is black. They like to build nests in cliff holes, tree holes, and gaps in tall buildings. Large-billed crows breed in the vast mountainous areas south of northeastern China. They are large in size, have thick beaks, and are completely black. The raven is the largest of the crows, with a body length of about 600 mm, and is completely black. Most of its body feathers, wings and tail feathers have blue-purple or blue-green metallic flashes, and its beak is very thick. They build nests in rock crevices on plateaus and mountains above 3,000 meters above sea level in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Rooks, jackdaws, and large-billed crows are the main overwintering birds in mixed flocks in cities in eastern and northern China. Crows are forest and grassland birds that live on forest edges or cliffs and go to the wilderness to dig for food. They are highly gregarious and can reach tens of thousands in a group.

Except for a few species, they often nest in groups and wander in mixed groups in autumn and winter. The behavior is complex and shows strong intelligence and social activities. The sound is simple and harsh. Omnivorous, many species like to eat carrion and are harmful to seedlings and grains. However, during the breeding period, it mainly feeds on small vertebrates, locusts, mole crickets, beetles and moth larvae, which is beneficial to agriculture. In addition, because it likes to scavenge and eat agricultural waste, it can eliminate environmental pollution such as animal carcasses and play a role in purifying the environment. They are generally fierce in character and full of aggressive habits. They often prey on eggs and chicks in the nests of waterfowl and wading birds.

The courtship display during the breeding season is more complicated and accompanied by acrobatic flying. Males and females build nests together. The nest is in the shape of a basin and is made of thick branches. The branches are reinforced with soil. The inner wall is lined with twigs, grass stems, cotton and linen fibers, animal hair, feathers, etc., and is sometimes padded with a thick layer of horse dung. Each clutch lays 5 to 7 eggs. The eggs are gray-green with fine brown and gray spots. The female bird incubates the eggs, and the incubation period is 16 to 20 days. The chicks are late adults and can only move independently after being fed by their parents for about 1 month.

Crows can live 13 years in the wild and up to 20 years in captivity. Some can learn human language and count to 3 or 4 after artificial training, and can also find marked food in containers.

Crows are monogamous for life.

The crow, a spiritual bird, has appeared frequently in China in recent years, attracting people’s attention to its cultural significance!

Edit this paragraph Cultural meaning The image of the crow in traditional Chinese culture

Before the Tang Dynasty, the crow was an auspicious and prophetic bird in Chinese folk culture. There is a common historical legend that the crow announced the good news, and the Zhou Dynasty began to prosper. Dong Zhongshu of the Han Dynasty quoted "The Biography of Shangshu" in "Spring and Autumn Dew·Likes Move": "When the Zhou Dynasty was about to prosper, there were big red crows carrying grain seeds and gathering in the king's house. Above all, King Wu is happy, and all the officials are happy." There are also famous records in the ancient historical books "Huainanzi", "Zuo Zhuan" and "Historical Records".

After the Tang Dynasty, the theory that crows bring bad omens appeared. Tang Duan Chengshi's "Youyang Zazu" said: "There is no good news on the ground when the crows sing. When people are leaving, they move forward with the crows, which is very happy. This is It is not recorded in the old account."

Whether it is bad or good, "the crow feeds back, the lamb kneels to breast" is a consistent saying of Confucianism using animal images in nature to teach people "filial piety" and "propriety". Therefore, the image of the crow as a "filial bird" has been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. "Compendium of Materia Medica·Qin·Ci Bird" states: "When this crow is born, its mother feeds it for sixty days, and when it grows up, it feeds back for sixty days. It can be said to be kind and filial." But whether crows really have this habit remains to be seen by modern people. Confirmed by research and observation.

In modern times, crows have been given the color of a lonely and brave freedom fighter who reports sorrow but not good news and specializes in exposing and criticizing unreasonable phenomena. For example, Hu Shi's vernacular poem "Old Crow" I got up early in the morning,

Standing in the corner of other people's houses and crying hoarsely

People dislike me and say I am unlucky;──

The weather is cold and windy, and there are no branches to live on.

I flew back and forth all day long, feeling cold and hungry all day long. ──

I can’t carry a scabbard and fly for others

I can’t let others tie it to the end of a bamboo pole and earn a handful of millet!

The cultural image of the crow in various regions (ethnic groups) in China

Northeast region:

The crow is the ethnic god who predicts happiness for the Manchus, the indigenous ancestors of the Northeast. Gods and protectors are also recognized by "shamanism" and most Tungusic-speaking ethnic groups. There is a legend of "the crow saved the ancestor" (Taizu of the Qing Dynasty), and there are also records from the Qing Dynasty documents: After several generations of Yongshun in Bukuli, "their The descendants were tyrannical, so they rebelled. In the sixth month, they captured Edoli and killed all the descendants of the clan. Among them was a young boy named Fan Cha. He escaped and walked into the wilderness. When the rear troops chased him, a divine magpie would perch on his head. The pursuers thought that there was no place for the magpie to rest on the human head, so they suspected it was a dead tree, so Fan found out and hid his body for the rest of his life. Later generations of Manchuria all regarded the magpie as their god, so they did not harm him. ": Northeastern mountain people. When people go hunting in the mountains, they also have the tradition of "sacrifice meat and wine to sacrifice crows".

In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Taizong set up a "Saulun pole" in front of the Qingning Palace in the Forbidden City in Shenyang to worship crows, and set up a special place in the west of Shenyang City to feed crows without harming them. See "Anecdotes of Historic Sites in the Three Eastern Provinces": "It is necessary to spread grain on the ground in the west side of the palace in Shengjing to feed the crows. At this time, the crows gather in groups, flying, perching, pecking, combing their feathers, fluttering their wings solemnly , The flying cries are dumb, millions of them, the roofs of the palace are almost full of them." After Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, he also set up a "Saulun pole" in the Forbidden City in Beijing to maintain the highest level of human worship of crows. .

Southwestern region:

In some areas of Tibet and Sichuan, China, the crow is also worshiped as a sacred bird, whether it is the excavated Tibetan documents or the "hanging coffins" and "hanging coffins" in the southwest region. The custom of "sky burial" proves this point.

Central Plains Region:

Wudang Mountain is a Taoist ancestral temple. Crows are regarded as "spirit crows" and a crow temple is built on the mountain. "Crows catching food" is one of the eight scenic spots in Wudang , even tourists entering the mountains should carry some food with them and scatter it for the crows to peck at.

In short, although the crow has an indecent image, it only has a gray impact on people’s psychology in Chinese culture, and there is no special rejection of it.

Edit this paragraph about the application of traditional Chinese medicine

Chinese medicine name: [Crow]

Explanation name: Crow, Laoya, Chu, Piju, Chuwu, Da Mouth is black.

Odor: (meat) sour, astringent, flat, non-toxic.

Indications: 1. Five types of labor and seven injuries. Use a crow, put a piece of Gualou pulp and a little alum into its belly, tie it tightly and cook it, and take it in four portions.

2． Dark wind and strong wind. Use a crow caught in winter, seal it with salt mud, calcine it, take it out after cooling, grind it into powder, add half a tael of powdered cinnabar, and mix well. For every penny spent, wine will be given away. Take it three times a day. But it can be cured in ten days. Another recipe: use a crow, seal it in a bottle and simmer it over fire, add seven walnuts and seven cocklebur heart seeds, grind the powder into powder, take one penny each, take it empty, and serve it with hot wine.

3. The meridians are blocked and the blood accumulates. Use 3/3 portions of crow (peeled and roasted), 3/3 portions each of angelica (roasted) and haomo, 2/2 halves each of Corydalis corydalis (fried), puhuang (fried), leech (fried with glutinous rice), and coriander green (fried with glutinous rice) ) one minute, *** grind to the end. For every money, wine will be given away.

4. Exhaustion and illness. Hang a crow, remove its feathers and intestines, fill it with ginseng slices and peppercorns worth five qian each, sew it up, and cook it with water. In addition, roast the crow bone, ginseng and pepper in the soup and grind them into powder.

Add jujube meat to make balls and take them.

5. The elderly suffer from headache, dizziness and dark eyes: 1 crow, remove feathers, 9 grams of gastrodia elata, stew in soup.

6． To treat epilepsy in children: add half a crow with pig bile, uncaria, whole scorpion and coptis, decoction in water and take it.

7. To treat lactation obstruction: appropriate amount of crow meat, stir-fry and eat.

Edit this paragraph for therapeutic value

The meat of corvids, large-billed crows and rooks. The crow is also called the giant-beaked crow and the black old crow. All over China. After obtaining, remove the hair and intestinal impurities and wash them.

[Performance] It tastes sweet, sour and neutral in nature. It can nourish yin and blood, kill insects and treat tuberculosis, calm the liver and calm wind.

[Use] Used for tuberculosis, bone steaming, cough and hemoptysis; deficiency of yin and blood, dizziness, headache; epilepsy in children.

[Usage] Cooking or adding to dishes.

[Additional Recipes]

1. Ginseng and Crow Soup: 1 crow, 15g ginseng, 3g pepper. Put the above two flavors into the crow's belly, tie or sew them with thread, add water and cook them, drink the soup and eat the meat. Bake crow bones, ginseng, and Chinese prickly ash into powder, and use jujube meat to make pills.

From "Convenient Diet Therapy". In this recipe, crow meat is used to replenish yin blood, kill insects and treat tuberculosis, ginseng is used to replenish lung qi, and Sichuan peppercorns are mainly used to correct the flavor. Used for cough due to fatigue, hemoptysis, bone steaming and hot flashes. In addition, crow bone, ginseng, pepper, and jujube are used as pills, which can also nourish the lungs and spleen.

2. Crow, Trichosanthes, and Alum Soup: 1 crow, 1 Trichosanthes trichosanthes (chopped), 15g alum, put into the crow’s belly, tie it with thread, add water and cook. Divide into 4 servings.

Origined from "Shou Yu Shen Fang". In this prescription, crow is still used to treat tuberculosis, and trichosanthes is used to moisten the lungs and resolve phlegm, and alum is used to astringe and stop bleeding. It is used for tuberculosis cough and hemoptysis, and has the ability to take into account both specimens and specimens.

3. Crow Gastrodia Soup: 1 crow, 10g Gastrodia. Add water to decoction and take it.

This recipe uses crow meat to nourish the liver and calm the liver. Gastrodia elata is an important medicine for calming the liver and treating dizziness (if Gastrodia elata is not available, white peony root can also be used). When used in combination, the effect is particularly effective. It is used for deficiency of yin and blood, hyperactivity of liver yang, dizziness, etc.

4. Freshly fried crow meat: 2 to 3 crows, cut into small pieces, stir-fry in cooking oil, add a little salt to season. This recipe uses crow meat to nourish yin and blood and produce milk. Used for postpartum lactation.

Edit this paragraph The crow symbolizes most people’s views

In the records of ancient witchcraft books, crows, like black cats, are often synonymous with death, fear and misfortune. The crow is regarded as a bad omen and an ominous omen. People believe that the cry of crows will take away people's lives and souls. Therefore, crows are hated by people and are considered to be ominous birds.

The crow is originally an auspicious bird

Birds have been closely related to humans since ancient times, such as "the ambition of the swan", "Zigui cries blood", "two orioles sing in the green willows, and a row of egrets on the "Blue sky"...The ancients left us countless idioms, fables, poems and pictures about birds. They contain ancient people's understanding, imagination and attachment to nature. Starting today, this page will open a column called "Birdsong Volume". The author, Mr. Feng Yongfeng, is a reporter for Guangming Daily and the initiator of the non-governmental environmental protection project "Natural University". This first "bird cry", let's talk about our most common crow.

There is a "military writer" who is very interesting. She went to western Sichuan to collect stories, and suddenly found many crows. She wrote in surprise in the article: "It is said that crows in the world are all black. Why did the crow I saw have red beaks and feet? Could it be that the crows here have mutated?" In fact, what she saw was a red-billed chough. , if she goes to a higher altitude, she may also see the yellow-billed chough, whose beak and feet are yellow. If she travels to the Xinyang area in southern Henan and observes more carefully, she may see a crow with a white neck, whose scientific name is the white-necked crow.

If she likes to read ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting, she will also find that the ancients liked to draw "Jackdaws after Snow". Some of the crows on it are wearing white coats, and some are black like traditional crows. . The modern scientific name of this kind of crow described by ancient painters is really called jackdaw, or some people call it "Dauri jackdaw". When the artist painted jackdaws, he probably painted both "crows" in cold weather and "jackdaws" in cold weather. Most of these paintings were painted in the north. There is rarely heavy snow in the south. Even if the ground is covered with heavy snow, it is rarely so empty and vast. Even if there are some flat areas, there may not necessarily be crows gathering around them.

Crows' love of gathering is used as a derogatory term, such as "rabble", which is used to describe a group that has no organization or training and gathers temporarily like a flock of crows. "The Book of the Later Han: The Biography of Geng Yan" says: "The crowd of people riding on the ground suddenly is like pushing dry and broken ears." Crows, magpies, and gray magpies are the birds that I have ever seen that stick together the most, and they are also the birds that are best at fighting in groups. For any possible danger, they will respond to each other, gather quickly, and ignore individual lives for the sake of common interests.

From this point we can see that crows and magpies have the same origin. Crows and magpies both belong to the Corvidae family, and both often live near humans. Similar to sparrows, they are "loved birds". Over the years of bird watching, I have often seen crows and magpies forming their own legions and fighting over territory. Where there are crowds of magpies, there are generally no crows; in areas controlled by crows, there are generally few magpies.

Some people don’t like crows. When they go out in the morning, if they see a magpie for the first time, they will be happy; if they see a crow for the first time, especially if they hear a crow for the first time, they will worry about bad luck. . If someone said something worrying, they would be ridiculed as "crow's mouth". But if we go to China's historical materials and search, maybe we will find that crows are actually quite positive birds.

China has always believed in "ruling the world with filial piety". In order to comply with the tradition of "filial piety system", the ancients invented the "Twenty-Four Filial Piety Pictures", which listed different types of filial piety behaviors for society to learn from. But this is not enough. The Chinese people have a well-developed image and meaning thinking. Words are of form and meaning, poems are of form and meaning, and fables are also of form and meaning. For those who like symbols and meanings, attaching certain special meanings to the common species around them is a must.

Common birds were used by the ancients one by one. The wild goose represents the longing for people far away, the cuckoo (cuckoo, Zigui) represents the traveler's nostalgia for his hometown, the sparrow and the sparrow represent the short-sighted villain, and the swan (Hong is a wild goose, and a swan is a swan) represents lofty ambitions and powerful talents. As for the crow, a beautiful legend has been attached to it. Whether it is a large-billed crow, a small-billed crow or a bald-nosed crow, they are all used to represent "filial piety" in general.

In many Confucian classics and legends, it is always said that crows "feed back their loving relatives". It means that crows are a typical example of filial piety. When their parents are old, old, sick, tired of the world, and unable to find food, the little crows, young crows, and crows of their children and grandchildren will not only look for food for their parents Food, and crows, not only look for food for their parents, but also make the food delicious, just like humans spitting food to raise their children. The reason why Li Mi's "Chen Qing Biao" became a famous article has a lot to do with this paragraph: "Chen Mi is 40 years old this year, and his grandmother Liu is 90 years old this year. It is the longest time for me to pay tribute to your majesty. I will repay Liu." The days are short. I am willing to beg for my love. "Personal filial piety is greater than loyalty to the court."

Most of the ancient literati were people who were obsessed with imagination. If we insist on correcting them with a scientific attitude, it will appear that we have committed a logical disease and a superstitious scientific disease. Scientifically speaking, there are sunspots and flares on the sun, and ancient Chinese people called the sun the "Golden Crow." Some ancient paintings actually show a crow squatting on the sun. The ancients believed that there is a three-legged crow in the sun and a rabbit in the moon, so they used "crow flying with rabbits" to describe the movement of the sun and the moon and the passage of time; when literati described the sun setting and the moon rising, it must also be "the golden crow falls in the west and the jade rabbit moves". Dongsheng".

Crow is also used to describe a certain official position. The most common one is to describe the censor. The censor's mansion is also called Wufu. It is said that this started from the Han Dynasty. "Han Shu·Zhu Bo Biography": "At that time, there were more than 100 official residences in the Yushi Mansion, and the wells were all exhausted. There were also cypress trees in the mansion, and thousands of wild crows often stayed on them. '."

Among the Chinese guqin songs, there is a song that is still played and sung, called "Crying in the Night". Zhang Ji, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote "The Cry of the Night". Before the poem, there is "Yin" saying: "Li Mian's "Qin Shuo" said: "The Cry of the Night" was created by the daughter of He Yan. In the beginning, Yan was in prison. , There are two crows hanging on the house. The woman said: "If there is a sound of joy, my father will be spared." Zhang Ji's poem goes like this: "The crows of Qin are dumb, and the officials in Chang'an are crying at night." If you are guilty and imprisoned, you will have to sell your property and you will redeem yourself. The young woman heard the crow crying at night, and she knew that the official had a letter of pardon. I will use your garden tree to make a high nest, so that my chicks will not be hurt every year." He Yan was a metaphysician in the Wei Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms, and Li Mian was a high-ranking official and clan member in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that he was also a musician and a master of piano making. Commentators from later generations pointed out that "Qing Shang Xiqu" also contains a poem "Crying at Night", written by King Linchuan of the Song Dynasty, "which has the same meaning but different meanings".

The last collection of poems by Ted Hughes, the British poet laureate who died in 1998, was called "The Crow", and it has never been completed. It is said that only two-thirds of it was collected, and some poems were not even written. Complete. Therefore, some literary researchers believe that this shows the poet's pursuit of "blank space". In ancient China, crows were often included in poetry. Here, let’s end with an ancient poem related to crows. Bai Juyi's "Ciwu's Night Cry" eulogizes the crow's return of nourishment, criticizes the state of the world, and criticizes the unfilial in the world. It is worth reading:

Ciwu lost his mother and uttered a mournful voice hoarsely. He does not fly away day and night, and keeps his old forest for many years. It cries at midnight every night, and anyone who hears it is Zhanjin. The voice is like telling, but the heart of giving back is not fulfilled. All the birds have no mothers. You alone are deeply saddened. It should be that the mother is kind and loyal, so that you will not let go of your sorrow. In the past, there was a man named Wu Qi, whose mother died and did not come. Alas, this disciple has a heart as good as that of a bird. Ciwu, Ciwu, Ciwu, the ginseng among birds.

Edit this anime image

The crow in Naruto The crow in Naruto is Kankuro's puppet, and his body is covered with mechanisms. It is extremely fast and has three eyes on its head. The head can spit out poison gas and hurt people with hidden weapons, and can be disassembled. All the hands, feet and head can be separated and combined again, and the crow has sharp blades on its hands. A hidden weapon is emitted from the head. But it must be coordinated with the black ants. The black ant is a container that puts the enemy inside, then imprisons the enemy, and then allows the crow that is separated from the body to attack and stab the enemy to death. The Crow, like the Black Ant and the Sansho Fish, were all made by the talented puppet master Red Sand Scorpion. Later, the Red Sand Scorpion rebelled against the Sand Ninja, and the crow belonged to Kankuro.

Edit this paragraph Albino Crow

Officers and soldiers from Tumuxiuke Border Police Station in Wensu County, Xinjiang discovered a white crow during patrol in Tumuxiuke Village, Tumuxiuke Town. There were more than a hundred crows in the group at that time, but there was only one white crow among them. The police officer captured this rare encounter with his camera.