Crow Rattle Call

Jason Rose Wrote:
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> Ron Keagle Wrote:
> ==================================================
> =====
> > One of the strange things crows do is make the
> > rattle call. It almost sounds like an
> amplified,
> > electronic signal of some sort.
>
>
> I wonder if that is the odd sound I hear on the
> Chama webcams occasionally. It sounds like
> something metallic or maybe electronic. I KNOW
> there are crows up there. We moved some BIG nests
> to install the cams and hardware.

It could be. If you did not know a crow was making the sound, it would be impossible to guess the origin. Isn’t there a type of rattle sound maker that has a crank on it? I can vaguely recall seeing those, and maybe they are used for theatrical and movie sound effects. When you crank that device, it makes a continuous series of closely spaced pop sounds. That is the rattle sound of the crow rattle call. When crows do it, each little pop is like a tiny caw. You can definitely hear the crow voice if you listen for it.

In movies, this rattle sound usually sounds sinister or threatening. When crows do it, it sounds like an expression of extreme contentment, almost like when a cat purrs. Crows have a lot of different inflections that they put into the basic “caw,” but the rattle call is something entirely different. When a crow does the rattle call, each one is a couple seconds long, and they he repeats it 15-20 seconds later. Even though the little pops are small, each one is very powerful. You almost can’t tell which direction it is coming from.