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Collared crow

species of bird

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ2579959 ↗
Source-derived summary

The collared crow (Corvus torquatus), also known as the ring-necked crow or white-collared crow, is a member of the family Corvidae native to China and the north of Vietnam.

Description

It is about 52–55 cm in length—the same size or slightly larger than the carrion crow (C. corone), with proportionately slightly longer wings, tail, and bill. A sleek and handsome bird, it has glossy black plumage except for the back of the neck, upper back (mantle), and a broad band around the lower breast that is white. The bill, legs, and feet are black.

It sometimes flies with its feet hanging down below the body in a characteristically "lazy" way.

The voice is a loud kaaar repeated several times with other slight variations on it to suit the occasion. It also, like many other corvids, utters strange clipping and clicking sounds during its head-bowing display to another bird.

Distribution and ecology

The range of this species is essentially China, covering large areas of the country, though not further north than Beijing. It occurs in plains and low-lying river valleys in fairly open country and cultivated regions and is a common sight in paddy fields. It tends to avoid large towns and cities and is predominantly a rural species.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Collared crow” is species of bird. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Collared, crow and species, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current 208-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Collared, crow and species is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “species of bird” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2579959. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Collared crow primary sources, Collared crow archive and Collared research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Collared crow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.