Adults: General plumage totally black, with purple and green gloss. Underdown pure white, clearly demarcate. Throat hackles short and indistinct. Eye, white, with inner blue ring. Bill, black. Feet, black.
Immatures: Like adults but breast and belly sooty brown. Underdown greyish-white. Eye, brown. Eye does not whiten until third year.
Other Names (World)
Torresian Crow, Australian Crow, Crow, Kelly, Large-billed Crow, Island Crow, Bismarck Crow
Derivation
Cor'-vus - L., crow: or-ru - derivation unknown, possibly a New Guinea name
Habitat
Rainforest margins, open forest, woodlands, taler inland and coastal scrubs, beaches, tidal areas. In arid regions, ranges, gorges, timber on larger water courses. Also farms, settlements.
Food
Omnivorous. Insects and plant material, including carrion.
Voice
Nasal, clipped, staccato 'uk-uk-uk-uk-uk' or 'k-ok-ok-ok-ok', sometimes drawn out at the end, in advertisement and contact, in flight or from a perch. Occasionaly more long-drawn out caws, resembling those of the Little Crow (Corvus bennetti). Western birds give long garbled yodelling caw in flight, possibly as a territory marker.
Torresian Crow (Corvus orru) [XC593961]
by James Lambert from Aspley, Brisbane City, Queensland, Australia (?)
Torresian Crow (Corvus orru) [XC697089]
by Drew Davison from Muirhead, City of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia (song)
Nest
A rough basket of sticks, using finer twigs than other crows, scantilly lined, usually high in a eucalypt. No mud is used in its construction.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 5; pale green, lightly or heavily blotched and spotted with dark olive-brown, according to subspecies; oblong-oval; about 44 x 30 mm. Incubation: by female.
Subspecies
Until recently considered conspecific with Bismarck Crow (Corvus insularis).
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
orru Bonaparte, 1851 - Islands of northern Torres Strait and all lowland New Guinea and its satellite islands, the Moluccas.
cecilae Mathews, 1912 - Western, northern and eastern Australia, from Murchison River, western rim of Nullarbor Plain and Great Victoria Desert, north to Pilbara Region and the Kimberley Divide, WA, and north-east through centralian ranges, Tanami Desert, Barkly Tableland and lower Georgina River, Qld, to Cape York Peninsula, south to about Hunter River, central coastal NSW, extending inland to western drainages of the Great Divide.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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BirdLife International Species Factsheet