Scientific name: Corvus capensis
The Cape crow or black crow (Corvus capensis) is slightly larger (48–50 cm in length) than the carrion crow and is completely black with a slight gloss of purple in its feathers. It has proportionately longer legs, wings and tail too and has a much longer, slimmer bill that seems to be adapted for probing into the ground for invertebrates. The head feathers have a coppery-purple gloss and the throat feathers are quite long and fluffed out in some calls and displays.
Here it is common in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, largely absent from the Kalahari and Mozambique. It generally favours open habitats with scattered trees, such as open savanna woodland and grassland, but it is also common in semi arid shrubland, alien plantations and farmlands.
Omnivorous, feeding on a wide range of animals and plants. It mainly forages on the ground, searching the bases of plants and responding to any temporary abundance of food, such as termite alate emergences.
