Census shows rubbish-hunting, bird-bullying crows are the most spotted bird in WA

It can be confirmed that while crows may be deeply annoying, they are literally impossible to avoid.

Nuisance or not, the squawking menaces have added a new feather to their cap. They were the most spotted bird in WA during Aussie Bird Count’s week-long public census conducted last October.

Birdwatchers reported seeing more of the black scavengers than any other variety, with the red wattlebird, New Holland honey eater, willie wagtail and Australian magpie rounding out WA’s top five.

The gala, Australian ringneck, rainbow lorikeet, laughing dove and brown honey eater made up the top ten.

Crows, which are actually Australian ravens, are the most spotted because of their “amazing intelligence” to focus their food-finding efforts in highly populated areas.

“They are very suburban birds, they know people have a lot of rubbish and throw out a lot of waste,” Kanyana Wildlife hospital manager Tasha Rea said.

“They’re very intelligent. They will open and go through bin bags. They will even work in pairs to get rubbish from public bins that have a bar stopping them open all the way.

“One bird opens the lid and the other goes inside, and taps when it’s ready to come out. They’re amazingly intelligent.”

Ms Rea isn’t surprised the ravens were the most spotted, given their focus on being around food sources.

“They understand humans can be messy and there will be more food around because of that,” she said.

Crows are also known to harass other birds and peck their tail feathers, even going so far as to attack baby birds.

“It’s no surprise people have a love-hate opinion of them,” Ms Rea said. A lot of people don’t like them but they are a very intelligent predator.”

The bossy nature of the second and third most seen species, the red wattlebird and new holland honey eater, makes them highly visible too.

“Both are drawn to native gardens where there’s an abundance of nectar, and they are very territorial and aggressive so they make sure no other bird is going to take their food,” Ms Rea said.

“There is a lot of power behind their little wings.”

More than 5000 WA birdwatchers contributed to the official count, part of 64,000 who kept tabs on birds spotted nationally. A record-breaking five million birds were counted across the country.

The most commonly spotted species nationally was the Australian magpie, followed by rainbow lorikeet, noisy miner, sulpher crested cockatoo and magpie-lark.

One in every two surveys included a magpie sighting, while the rainbow lorikeet claimed the title for the most numerous bird counted, accounting for more than 535,000 individual birds spotted.

“Because rainbow lorikeets are more social, hanging out in flocks, when we see them, we see more of them,” Sean Dooley, BirdLife Australia’s National Public Affairs advisor, said.

“But the magpie is the bird we encounter most often. Every second person who did the count last year added a magpie to their list.”

Mr Dooley said counting birds can add to a “valuable national snapshot” and the hobby “is really taking off around the world”.