Crows or Ravens? Maghull Liverpool UK (today) PART #1 (1 Viewer)

[RichieTwitchy]

Hi all

I have seen Ravens before - a pair of them - and they were HUGE!

But these guys didn't come near enough to gauge their sizes so 0-0.

There were about 6 of them together with the group seemingly picking on one individual - and I understand that Ravens don't tend to be in groups so 1-0 to these being crows.

I have never seen a Raven in Maghull - but that could just be me - so 2-0 to these being crows.

The tails are difficult to make out but I can see a sort of diamond shape - so 2-1 to these being crows.

I have added an mp3 of their calls - they had perched a fair distance away but I had my mobile with me so tried to record their calls. I thought it sounded more kronk-y so 2-2 to these being either crows or Ravens.

It's always best to go with what the most common answer would be - so I guess it would have to be 3 -2 to these being crows.

What do you think?

 

[lou salomon]

ravens.

 

[RichieTwitchy]

Cheers for that Lou :t:

 

[stevethehydra]

Diamond shaped tail (longer central tail feathers) = Raven. (You seem to have counted it as a pro-crow point above, but it's the other way!)

 

[birdmeister]

Huge bills point to ravens as well. On the Appalachian mountain ridge in Pennsylvania, I've observed several groups, the largest by far being 30 ravens!

 

[rollingthunder]

I don’t know the current status of breeding Ravens but where i live here on the edge of the West Midlands conurbation with shire countryside adjacent the numbers have visually increased around here. I do a little seasonal surveying of the species annually and we have recorded about 20 breeding pairs within 15 mile half radius of Stourbridge with one pair successfully breeding just over a mile from the town centre in the WM county for about 5 years. Sadly this pair will probably desert as no sign has been seen this Spring due to the large house being converted to a gastro-pub and so the disturbance by the builders has had the usual effect. Until recently a nearby landfill (ca4 miles away) which i used to check for scarce Gulls held, wait for it, upto 80:eek!: Ravens during the Winter! 40-60 birds fed and roosted routinely - this has now been capped so another avenue of pleasure has been closed.....

Good Birding -

Laurie:t:

 

[RichieTwitchy]

Diamond shaped tail (longer central tail feathers) = Raven. (You seem to have counted it as a pro-crow point above, but it's the other way!)

No Steve - I gave the Ravens 1 point for that but it was still 2-1 to crows :t:

@birdmeister - I wasn't too sure about the bill size but they did seem more 'throaty'.

@rollingthunder Ravens are still pretty rare round about where I live - Aintree/Melling - and I've never seen them in Maghull before, but of course, that could just be because I'm not out there every day monitoring them. It was great to see so many - great watching their behaviour as a group :t:

 

[rollingthunder]

Always watchable mate:t:

I never thought their now familiar throaty call would be an at least once weekly occurrence over the house and now with the breeding season over parties of 4-6 are being encountered - despite living in an urban area calling Ravens always evoke the mountains and coast where i first encountered the species:t:

Laurie -