(no subject)

[arethinn]

I just saw the biggest crow I have ever seen in my life. It caught my eye as it was dodging a parking car by hopping away from it on both legs, rather than walking in a normal gait or flying. I thought "what the heck is that crow doing?" and turned to look at it more closely. It was at least a third again as big as a regular crow and its beak was a different shape and size. Thinking it might be a raven, I examined its tail shape when it finally flew off (it allowed me to get closer than a crow normally would), but I didn't really know what shape I was supposed to be looking for. According to this site, I think it had the more rounded shape of the regular crow, which means it was just a damned big one. It would be odd for me to see a raven around here as I'm not aware that this is a habitat area for them, but who knows.

Comments

[spartydragon.livejournal.com]

Ravens have kind of a wedge shaped tail. And they tend to show up in odd places.

[arethinn]

Yes, so I read. However, the point was that I didn't know at the time I was looking at the tail. Double however, some pictures I've been looking at of ravens in flight show their tails just as round as the crows' - it seems the wedge shape is apparent only when the feathers are sitting closed and not spread for flight. Unfortunately, it didn't call - that would have made it easy to tell the difference, apparently.

[winterredwood.livejournal.com]

What kind of call does a raven make? I'm not sure I've ever seen or heard one.

[arethinn]

A lower-pitched croaking sound. This page has wav files.

[silentbob037.livejournal.com]

That hopping sounds like the seagull that I saw in Long Island. It was really windy and I watched a seagull walk backwards (with his face turned into the wind) the length of a medium sized pier.

[rainman1432003.livejournal.com]

http://www.angelfire.com/id/ravensknowledge/ravensvscrows.html has the most technical about Ravens vs Crows, e.g. size Crows average around 17 inches long, and ravens about 24-27; and wing size: Crows have a wing span around 2.5 ft., and ravens about 3.5-4 ft. Four feet is fairly large. You might have recognized four feet vs two feet. I noticed a couple of sites say that crows are more the size of pidgeons.


Here are some pics also
http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/enlarged.asp?imageID=16958
http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/enlarged.asp?imageID=16957

Very similar. This may not be the case in general, but the raven seems to have a proportionaly longer beak.

[arethinn]

I didn't get a good look at the size as it flew. As it sat on the ground it was definitely large (as already mentioned). I may have seen the same site you did with the pigeon comparison, which sounds ludicrous to me; the crows around here are significantly larger than the local pigeons (I see both every day). The beak shape was definitely different, longer, more curved. Again, though, I had about 2 seconds in which to make all these observations and it's really just not enough data.

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

Generally, other than sheer size, the biggest giveaway is the beak. A raven's beak is more curved than a crow's.

[eldriwolf.livejournal.com]

Ravens are Way bigger, the beak is bigger--not just 'really' but "In Proportion" to the head. That is, if they Were the same size, the raven's beak is Heaver, thicker, more 'roman nosed'.
And they tend to ruffle there feathers more, as signals to other ravens,-and, they make Lots of different sounds.