This is bird mode.

Crows can seem a bit mundane.

They're all about the same size, all black, right?

Wrong.

There is a wide world of crows out there, with more than three dozen species.

New Guinea is home to the gray crow, feathered in powder gray with a hefty pink beak.

The hooded crow of Europe in the Middle East is sort of a two-tone crow.

It has a gray body nicely offset with black head, wings, and tail.

The pied crow of Africa is black with a bold white collar and breast.

The island of Saram in Indonesia is home to the violet crow.

It has an iridescent blue-black body and black hood or head with a very small beak.

And then there's the aptly-named large-build crow of East Asia, with a massive humped

hunker of a beak.

You'll find crows in forests, dry scrub land, and many ecosystems in between, from northern

farmlands to the southern tropics.

The first crows evolved on an ancient fragment of land that would later become Australia.

From there, they spread to Asia and onto other continents.

Today, more than a third of all the world's crow species are found only on isolated tropical

islands.

And they all belong to the genus Corvis, along with their larger kin, the Ravens.

So when you say hello to your neighborhood crow, consider how unique that bird is, among

all the species of crows out there.

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