If I thought trying to tell the difference between Australian raven and Terresian Crows was hard enough throw in some young ones plus one with a killer beak! The top two photo's were taken today while picking up the kids from school. It has brown eyes which says juvenile, white under feathers that points to Terresian crow BUT has pink gape which I read was more Australian Raven.. Now if you look at the beak it's hook on the end it longer than any raven/crow I have ever seen! soo I guess I have no clue.
Bottom picture was taken a few weeks ago and I assume is a juvenile Crow as it was hanging with a pair that I 'think' were adult terresian's... Why can't they just evolve different coloured legs or beaks, it would make it alot easier to ID lol
Torresian Crow,I think. The only reason is because there's lots of ravens around my area so I know them well,and they don't look much like this.
Thanks Nathan, that was my first guess.. I'm used to seeing ravens up close down at the shops (I assume revens by their calls and posture) but this was the first time any from the school grounds were near enough to see properly, plus the camera came in handy for a better look
Ravens have bright white piercing eyes, and throat "hackles".
Oh silly me I have had them back to front! my locals are really crows, pic shows no hackles
I think I might stick to colourful birds, much easier on the brain
Trying to ID crows from ravens, vice versa, is a lot easier when in flight... You see, crows will "skip a beat" when they call in flight, meaning they don't call and flap at the same time. Ravens on the other hand, call without interupting their flight.
Brandon (aka ihewman)
Lovely bird. Not a raven.
I routinely assume that every large plain black bird I see in suburban Brisbane is a Torresian Crow.
It may not be 100% correct, but I think (hope) it's a fair rule of thumb...
Edit: Actually there's probably no basis at all to assume that (I just can't separate it from the Aust Raven easily)
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Easy for me in Tassie, we don't have any crows, and only 1 raven - the Forest Raven (Little Raven found on King Island) and Currawongs, both Black and grey. Trying to get a photo, they sit on the roadside, seemingly oblivious to the traffic whizzing past, (they do a great job cleaning up road kill, as no other Organisation does) but as soon as you stop, they are gone! They get fairly brave at some picnic spots, landing quite close and stealing food.
They are great shots of large black birds, thanks.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania