Sunda crow

The Sunda crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae that is found in South-East Asia, from Malaysia to Borneo. The Sunda crow is part of the Corvus enca species complex, which was formerly treated as a single species and known as the slender-billed crow. The complex is now treated as five species, after four subspecies were split off as distinct species: the Samar crow or small crow, the Palawan crow, the Sulawesi crow and the Sierra Madre crow. The violet crow was also once included, but has been shown to be distinct genetically and separated as Corvus violaceus.

Taxonomy

Corvus enca was formally described in 1821 by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield based on a specimen collected on the Indonesian island of Java. He coined the binomial name Fregilus enca. The specific epithet enca is a Javanese word for a crow.
Corvus enca is part of a species complex, which was previously treated as a single species with six subspecies, then known of as the slender-billed crow. Four of those subspecies are now treated as a separate species:

Sulawesi crow
Samar crow
Sierra Madre crow
Palawan crow

The remaining two subspecies are recognised as subspecies of the Sunda crow:

C. e. compilator Richmond, 1903 – Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, west Sumatran islands and Borneo
C. e. enca – Java and Bali

In earlier treatments, the Banggai Crow and the Violet Crow were also included in Corvus enca.

Habitat and diet

It is found throughout Maritime Southeast Asia and Peninsular Malaysia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical mangrove forest. It eats fish and shrimp.