Ravens & Crows

Ravens vs crows

The Captivating Common Raven
By Femke Oldham

When here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,?In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore...
Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,?By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,?"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,?Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore--?Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"?Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
? Edgar Allen Poe may have been on to something when he composed his eerie homage to this prophetic raven. Ornithologists have come to classify the Common raven, Corvus corax, as one of the smartest of all birds.
From toenails to beak, the Common raven is all black. Not to be confused with their smaller cousin the American Crow, Common ravens have a thick, shaggy body that tapers into a diamond shaped tail. They are also identified by their heavy beaks and, relative to crows, anti-social behavior.
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Common ravens are confident birds that are often found alone or in pairs. A raven will perch in a tree or building ledge and make its presence known by loudly cawing, strutting, or flashily somersaulting in the air. Additionally, ravens can recognize faces. Bird researchers who repeatedly capture and band ravens have reported that these feisty fliers will vocally scold and drop nuts on their heads if the researchers return to one area too often. Ravens are also known to be aerial acrobats, and enjoy playing games like flying upside down, or dropping sticks and catching them midair.
They're called Common ravens for a reason. Found all over western and northern North America, ravens can make happy homes in forests, deserts, beaches, sagebrush, tundra, grasslands, as well as in cities. Their adaptability is due in part to their adventurous, some might even say ravenous, eating habits. They eat carcasses, small animals, eggs, arthropods like beetles and grasshoppers, fish, wolf and dog dung, grains, flowers, berries, pet food, many types of human food and garbage.
Yes, ravens know how to scavenge; and they also know how to hunt. They work in pairs to distract seabirds and steal their eggs and chicks. Common ravens have even been known to pull the same trick with sheep, snatching newborn lambs away from their unsuspecting mothers. Ravens are such smart predators that their increasing numbers are threatening some vulnerable species, including the desert tortoise and the Least Tern.
? Edgar Allen Poe wasn't the only one to take notice of the Common Raven. In various parts of the world, ravens are considered to possess strong personality and even magical qualities. For example, in Pacific Northwest Native American mythology the raven is considered a benevolent trickster, bringing people fire by stealing it from the sun. The raven's knack for living so close to humans does suggest a certain kinship between us and these wily birds. So next time you hear a throaty caww coming from a nearby tree, take a moment to consider this fascinating bird. And keep in mind that the raven just might be staring right back at you.
From The Watershed Project

JS:  I largely agree with most of the above, but the article fails to note that all this can be said about the closely-related and only slightly smaller crows.  That includes the playfulness of the two species.  And, as a person who herded sheep for seven years, I doubt that a ewe would tolerate a raven making off with her lamb—considering that they are able to fend off coyotes if they try to prey on a lamb.  We never lost a single lamb or ewe  to coyotes, in spite of livestock men’s assertions to the contrary.  We did not have crows or ravens, so I am unable to say they wouldn’t kill lambs.

Ravens can be distinguished by the size and conformation of their beak (larger); in flight the raven tail forms a v, a nice mnemonic.  Crow tails are fan-shaped.

Crows and ravens are new to San Francisco.  I noticed their arrival in the 1970s.  Their depredations have been increasing and now menace many creatures, especially birds.  I used to hear mockingbirds singing in the middle of the night; no more—crows raided their nests and now they cannot be seen in my neighborhood.  Their impacts on biodiversity is considerable, though so far unmeasured, to my knowledge.

For the past two months crows have taken over my coast live oak tree.  I cannot go out into the backyard without being harassed loudly and irritatingly.  Why they lay claim to this tree and object vociferously to my presence is not at all clear.  Fledglings and nesting have been considered but found wanting for evidence.  

They perch on roof of neighbors and stare at me through the windows, as if to say ‘we’re watching you’.  Yesterday they even scolded me when getting off the Muni bus and walking up the sidewalk to my house, a good distance from the tree.  They don’t take notice of other people walking up the hill, only me.

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LTEs, Science News
Count on crows to know?Regarding “When birds go to town” (SN: 8/27/11, p. 26), I have observed other corvids that recognize a specific animal that has proven to be a threat. We had a cat that successfully caught a Steller’s jay chick. For the remaining five years of the cat’s life, she was a marked assassin! She could not leave the house without invoking a posse of jays constantly squawking and following her. We had a second cat who was at best a spider hunter. He was mostly unnoticed by the jays. Incidentally, we did not find him being followed by spiders. ?Larry Sage, Truckee, Calif.

My father, whose vendetta against crows was legendary, always kept a shotgun by the back door. As hundreds of crows gathered each evening across the pond, he would grab the gun and “stealthily” sneak around the house, hoping to blast a few of “the dratted critters.” It was a joke among us kids, because the instant he peeked around the house, all the crows — with more racket than you can imagine — took off immediately. We began to experiment, sending my mom out with a broom using the same “sneaky” behavior exhibited by my father. The crows figured out the ruse immediately, sitting calmly on the ground or in the trees, drinking from the pond and generally thumbing their beaks at us. ?Ann Harmer, Costa Mesa, Calif.
P.S. My father managed to kill only one crow in his 50-plus years on the property. The crows came and went with impunity.
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The birds are back and making a killing
Guardian Weekly note

Ravens occupy a special place in our folklore.  Half a dozen are kept in the Tower of London, and it's said that if they ever leave, the kingdom will fall, which is why their wings are clipped.

Their cousins in the country have no such restrictions.  They are growing in numbers, which is good--but not for farmers.  They claim, in a Hitchcockian echo, that the huge, glossy black birds are ganging up on lambs and even calves, using their immensely strong bills to peck the poor animals to death.  The farmers want to kill the ravens, but the birds, once threatened with extinction, are protected by law.