Long time no posting but I'm back and hope to enjoy this forum again.
As I drive through the country side of VIC, I often see black birds which hop around eating road kill. I have never seen any of these birds as road kill. They are usually very adept at getting off the road.
I have always thought of these as crows but I recently bought a digital bird reference which shows that crows are not localised to VIC. I looked into it and I think these birds may be ravens. Possibly the Little Raven.
Any thoughts on this?
A photo and location would be ideal for the ID of corvids. In Victoria Little Raven, Australian Raven and in the south Forest Ravens all occur. The only crow occurs in the far northwest of Victoria (Little Crow). So crow or raven species - raven unless in the northwest (where it could be both).
Sorry no photo possible when driving. General area along the Hume freeway Albury to Melbourne and Murray Valley Highway Albury to Yarrawonga. Not north west. My thoughts are the Australian Raven or the Little Raven. I'll try and be more observant. As I said, I got curious when I noted that crows are not in Victoria except up in the far north west.
cheers Bob....Hastings VIC
The relative intelligence of Ravens & crows would enhance their survival at road kill on heavily-trafficked highways & byways.
They won't move far from traffic travelling at speed, but just stop and try to get a photo, GONE!!
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Years ago I was asked to illustrate a paper for the Museum in Melbourne about crows and ravens. It said that Crows were only
in SA and all other similar birds in other states were Ravens.
It also said that if you pull out a feather for one of the birds the fluffy bit at the end of the feather is brown, for the other, it is grey, but I can't remember which.
Both Crows and Ravens are known to be very intelligent so maybe we can assume they know how to avoid being "road kill".
The only similar bird you would see in this area is a Chough, you see them in the vegetation at the side of the road not on the road and not eating road kill.
The thing that got me going with this question was the Pizzey and Knight Birds of Australia digital edition. I had just installed it and was looking around at Crows and saw they were not in the areas of my observations. See my earlier posts for locations.
I just had another look at it today after rozkidd's post above and looked at the two possible ravens. These were the Little Raven and the Australian Raven. Two things stand out that ID it for me as the Little Raven. They were the voice and the absence of the shaggy bunch of throat feathers.
When I was living at Yarrawonga VIC I used to see and hear these birds a lot. I'm now down on the Mornington Peninsula and they not so evident here.
cheers Bob....Hastings VIC
I would get back to them as Queenland's predominant corvid is the Torresian Crow.
Peter
there was an excellent corvid ID article in the BirdLife Australia magazine maybe 18-24 months ago
Peter