Common Raven

Here's a bird I see moderately often, hear more often than that, but of which rarely get an identifiable picture, a Common Raven. This is partly because they don't photograph particularly well; in some light I don't end up with much more than a silhouette. And it's partly because the differences between our ravens and our crows (American or Fish) are fairly subtle. Social media has a lot of pictures of crows where the photographer was hoping to have gotten a raven picture. (Sometimes these lead to heated crow-versus-raven debates, similar to those of other look-alike birds.)

The overall size, relative beak size, and a hairier beak are the best clues in telling ravens from crows. If they were side-by-side, size alone would distinguish the 2 pretty easily, but usually crows perceive ravens as threats and will try and drive them away. When I've seen them together the crows are either driving a raven away in an aerial battle or they're scolding the raven vociferously with their cawing (usually in a treetop).

Birders like to joke that the difference between a crow and a raven is that:

  • A crow is a bird with a beak.
  • A raven is a beak with a bird.

Despite the poem, if you really want to "quote the raven" you'd probably be making rough croaking noises, one of the louder and more distinctive bird vocalizations. Of course, vocalizations don't make a picture any more identifiable. Still, the croaking is probably why I made a point of trying to photograph the individual below.

November 26, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 251085225, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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