Rare white crow rescued in Virginia after being ‘divebombed’ by other crows

Civil rights lawyer Catherine Sevcenko spends her spare time taking in and rehabilitating injured birds in Alexandria, Va.

Many of the fledgling crows that appear at her door have fallen from nests, were hit by cars or crashed into windows. But there’s one constant in the past 12 years: each one is covered in shiny black feathers, sharp black beaks and dark eyes.

Sevcenko could hardly believe it when a rare crow she named Hope showed up last month.

“I’d never seen a white crow before,” said Sevcenko, who runs Diva Crows rehab center with the goal of releasing the birds back into the wild.

The Wildlife Rescue League of Falls Church, Va., contacted Sevcenko and asked if she could take in a rare white fledgling crow that had been brought in by a good Samaritan last month.

The man said he’d rescued the bird in Manassas, Va., after he saw a group of adult crows “dive bomb” and attack the rare fledgling, Sevcenko said. The juvenile crow hadn’t developed enough strength in her wings to fly away.

“I told them, ‘Of course, I’ll take the bird,’” said Sevcenko, 62.

She said she decided to name the young crow Hope, because she’d read legends about white crows being a good omen and a sign of positive change.

The bird was only a few months old and was a little underweight, but didn’t appear to have any injuries, said Sevcenko, noting that she doesn’t know yet whether the crow is male or female.

“We had her tested, but the lab lost the sample, and I don’t want to put another needle through her veins right now,” she said. “Everybody is referring to her as a she, though, so that’s what we’re going with.”

A veterinarian determined that Hope wasn’t a pure albino crow - an occurrence in one of every 30,000 to 100,000 crows. Because her primary feathers are caramel colored, not white, the vet diagnosed her as amelanistic, Sevcenko said, meaning that Hope has no melanin to produce black feathers.

“She’s quite an anomaly - the vet had never seen one like her,” she said.

Sevcenko has spent her spare time helping birds in need since 2012. With help from volunteers, she estimates that Diva Crows has rehabilitated more than 2,000 birds, including blue jays, robins, woodpeckers, cedar waxwings and cardinals.

In 2023, Sevcenko took in a two-foot tall raven that had been shot by a pellet gun in Chantilly, Va. Although the bird could no longer fly and couldn’t be released after he had healed, she found a home for him at the Cayuga Nature Center in Ithaca, N.Y.

She said her plan is for Hope to also have a future as an educational bird.

“We wanted to make every effort we could to get her back in the wild, but there are just too many hazards for a bird that looks like her,” Sevcenko said. “The chances of her getting accepted are pretty small, given the way she looks and acts.”

[The white raven has left Anchorage, but its many fans remain hopeful]

Sevcenko said she doesn’t know why Hope was attacked by other crows, but added that the bird could have been abandoned by her parents, which left her vulnerable. There is also a possibility that she fell from the nest or wandered into other crows’ territory, she said.

“Crows are very territorial when they have their own young, and they’re not into sharing resources,” she said.

Sevcenko said she was also concerned that Hope had imprinted on humans.

“The person who picked up the crow kept her for a few days before contacting the Wildlife Rescue League,” she said. “When she arrived here, she was really comfortable with people, which isn’t normal.”

Even without those factors, Sevcenko said the bird would face multiple hazards in the wild.

“When white crows are rejected, they are forced to live alone, which for a crow is kind of tortuous,” she said, noting that crows are social, family-oriented birds that live in groups.

“They’re incredibly smart birds, and in groups, they’re not targets for predators like a white crow would be,” Sevcenko said.

White crows can develop vision problems, which it makes it harder for them to hunt, and they can starve to death, she said.

“One of the reasons they’re so rare is they rarely make it to the point of breeding,” Sevcenko added.

She and her volunteers briefly put Hope in a cage with some rescued black fledgling crows and there weren’t any issues, she said.

Then they put Hope in with an adult crow. Things did not go well.

“She ended up attacking him,” Sevcenko said. “She’s a very interesting specimen. She loves exploring, and she’ll perch on your arm. She enjoys hanging out in the rehab to supervise what’s going on.”

Everyone who spends time with Hope is delighted by her personality, said Tijona Owens, a Diva Crows intern.

“She loves bird baths, and when we change her cage, she’ll sit on top and talk to you like she’s a little person,” she said. “She’s very vocal and she’s always hungry.”

Snacks she eats include high-protein dog kibble, blueberries, mice and chopped chicken heart.

Sevcenko said two veterinarians told her that Hope can’t be released in the wild, so she plans to look for a wildlife education facility that can take her in.

“I really enjoy having her around, but I think she’ll be a good education bird,” she said. “She’s definitely one of a kind.”