This small eastern crow is rarely found far from water. It is an active scavenger and omnivore: it steals food from gulls and terns, raids shorebird nests and heronries, and has learned the trick of dropping mollusks on hard surfaces to open them. It is smaller than an American Crow, has more pointed wings, and a proportionally smaller and thinner bill. It can most easily be distinguished by its nasal vocalization, which sounds like "uh-uh".