Bird of the Week: 27th of August - Crows and Ravens

Raven

Alex, that's a magpie, not a crow   Unless I've grown up with the wrong name in my head for that bird.

I wish I could tell the difference, but here's a shot I got a while ago, it's not great, but love the eye. 

These were from shots I took of a bunch of Torresian Crows drinking from a puddle.

You're right Holly, I wouldn't normally photograph them, but they were right on the path, and not a lot else was around.

Great choice Holly. I really liked your 4th one Kathie and everyone else's crows. Mine is a raven. I don't normally photograph them, but these landed near me.

I do like to photograph these birds. I regard it as a challenge for myself to obtain a good picture.  Black bird in bad light is not easy. Usually I find I am on the wrong side of the sun and only get about 10% of my shots as worth keeping.  Photo #1 on the dark side of the tree, out of focus because AF has picked on the intervening twig. Photo #2, my best so far. Photo #3  light not a good position.

I wasn't sure but the ravens seem to have collars and the crows don't.  Or perhaps they're just different ravens or crows? At one stage I did think they were one and the same when doing research about a year or so ago.

Raven on the neighbour's roof.  One of my first subjects when trying out the new digital camera.

Here is one from me, I have always been fond of these birds.

I deliberately went crow hunting today. it was cold and dull, even the birds stayed home. I managed to get one by the roadside

Great photos shots there people, always been a fan of the humble Raven, although I support the Magpies in the AFL!  The Australian Raven is larger than the Crow in NSW.

To distinguish an Australian Raven look for the throat hackles and bare throat patch.

In appearance, only the ruffled feathers beneath the chin set the Australian Raven apart from other crows in Australia, some also say that the Australian Raven is also slightly larger in size.

For good entertainment in suburbia, watch an Australian Raven open the lid of a plastic Chinese take-away food container to get at the contents inside!  Or pick a hole through a styrofoam Maccas container, one foot holding the package down.

Another unique trait is when the bird has had it's fill, it will more often than not, take the left over food and hide it, to go back later when hungry and finish it off.  Last weekend I watched an Australian Raven gently push the remains of a pizza slice under a gap between the tiles on my neighbours roof! 

I found some.

What are you yelling at me for? What ever you say, I didn't do it.

The one doing the squawking is a juvenile, you can tell by the eye colour and "immature" feathers around the head and neck.  Young

Ravens grow to full size very quickly but still retain other juvenile characteristics for many months after reaching full size.

I knew that Raven, I even saw it beeing fed. Just turned it into a funny story.

Nice shot

Great shots Akos.  Love the detail of the wing in the first one.

Was sitting at the bus stop near Pittwater Road and Condamine Street today Manly West and seen a Raven sitting on top of the traffic light pole, lights go to red, Raven casually drops down onto the road and removes some entrails from a squished cat near the median strip, as lights change, Raven heads back to pole and neatly places entrails on top of light rack. 

Lights go back to red and Raven, again casually drops down to the road and struts up to cat corpse and removes some more entrails, back to the top of the lights as they change.  My bus arrives and that is the end of the show, very clever bird and so confident, he knows that he has a "meal pass" whilst the lights are red!

I have seen Indian Mynah birds strutting down the median strips of the M2 and M5 here in Sydney as traffic whizzes past at 80-100KMh with out a worry in the world, urbanised birds?  Likwise Pink Galahs at the edge of the road at St Ives on Sunday digging up grass seeds from a nature strip and cars whiz past at 60-80KMh.

Last month I was sitting at Circular Quay eating lunch, two Sacred Ibis walk up to the lights amid people waiting to cross, lights change, "walk" sign comes on, and the two Ibis casually walk across the crossing with the general public and head to the small grass area near the Paragon Hotel, so casual they were.