The Sinaloa crow (Corvus sinaloae) is a species of bird in the family Corvidae, the crows and jays. It is endemic to Mexico.
Taxonomy and systematics
What is now the Sinaloa crow was long thought to be a population of the "Mexican crow" Corvus imparatus; it was not recognized even as a subspecies. Eventually C. imparatus was named the Tamaulipas crow after the Mexican state where the type specimen had been collected. In 1958 L. Irby Davis published a study of the vocalizations of North American crows and detailed how the western Mexican population had a significantly different voice than the eastern Tamaulipas population. He described it as the new species C. sinaloae, the Sinaloa crow.
The Sinaloa crow is monotypic.
Distribution and habitat
The Sinaloa crow is found in western Mexico from southern Sonora south to southwestern Nayarit and east into western Durango. It inhabits gallery forest, deciduous forest, towns and villages, and pastures and agricultural land in the tropical zone. Sources differ on its elevation range; two place it from sea level to and one only as high as . It forages at all levels of its habitat. It is found in pairs, in small flocks, and outside of the breeding season in flocks that may reach 125 individuals.