Impact of selected food items on the population of house crow (Corvus splendens) and its behaviour in an agro-ecosystem in Faisalabad [Pakistan]

Studies on the impact of some selected food items on the house crow and its behaviour were studied. The sampled food items were citrus, wheat, maize and barley respectively. Citrus orchards was sampled in January. In the morning hour of depredations, which started from 0600 and terminated at 0830 a total of 52 birds were recorded visiting the orchards. On the average 0.29 crows were recorded to visit the citrus orchards similarly in the afternoon, in all, 97 crows were recorded visiting the citrus orchards. In February, when the temperature becomes mild 46 crows were recorded leaving the freshly sown maize in the morning hours, followed by 78 crows in the afternoon hours. There is a heterogeneity in the morning and afternoon hours of time interval. It augments that the crows probably preferred to feed more intensively in the afternoon as compared to the morning. In March, the maize is still fresh and it subjected to the attack of house crows. It is worth pointing out that the 12 time intervals, only 64 crows visited the maize field in the morning session in different time interval. On contrary to this, 77 crows were recorded leaving the field in the afternoon. In April, the maize become mature to a large extent and invites birds to feed on the cobs. The worst bird pest feeding on the cobs is the rose-ringed parakeet. The crows were however, not recorded to feed on intensively in the morning, whereas their intensity of depredations increased manifolds in the late afternoon. Wheat crop was sampled in May for 12 duration in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. During the morning session 142 house crows were recorded to feed on the wheat grains, whereas, 131 crows left the field in the afternoon. Only twenty crows were recorded to feed the barley crop in the morning session with the average 0.12 crows per time interval. In the afternoon for the stipulated time intervals 112 crows left the field with the average per interval 0.60. The behavioral patterns included the short flights, no of calls produced, the tussles, allofeeding, allopreening and copulatory acts. Both short flights and calls were almost always in high abundance. The rest of the behavioral displays were rarely exhibited by the crows except for the spring when such displays were fairly pronounced. Departure and arrival schedule of the crows towards their nocturnal roosts was done in March and April. A nocturnal roost was not a separate entity rather it was a part of the communal roost, and only at night, the crows used it for the nightly rest.