Birds of the World

Corvidae : Crows, Jays & Magpies

Hooded Crow

Corvus corone cornix

Isle of Mull, Scotland - March 2017

Hooded Crows are abundant in the northwest Highlands of Scotland. There is a lot of debate and controversy as to whether Hooded Crow is a subspecies of Carrion Crow or if it is a species in its own right and the accepted thinking seems to swing back and forward regularly. Many authorities currently class Hooded Crow as a separate species, but the recently published HBW/Birdlife International Checklist to the Birds of the World (the taxonomy I follow on this site) lumps it with Carrion Crow. I guess it all boils down to exactly what your definition of a species is...yet another hotly debated topic!