Wild Birds of Europe

Jack Dawe said:
With difficulty. The Raven is almost the size of a Buzzard or a Red-tailed Hawk, although this is often impossible to judge. The easiest way to distinguish them is by their calls: the crow caws; the raven has a gutteral croak which is very distinctive once learnt. When flying the Raven has a diamond-shaped tail; the crow's is more rounded. Also, the Raven's wings are more centrally placed (the neck and head are almost as long as the tail), whereas the crow's head is much shorter. The wing-tips are much more 'fingered' too. The Raven's bill is thick and massive compared to the crow's with the end of the upper mandible much more strongly curved. This is a lousy photo, but it shows the Raven's features well.
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You know birds. Impressive! Thank you.
 
Levina said:
I see. Seems like a waste of energy though, to fly for miles and come away with nothing. But so many of them flying and diving sure is something to see!

Good for the raven though, getting more than his fair share. :D
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They are wide ranging scavengers and spend most of their time flying miles looking out for a meal, if they see others diving for food they may as well be over here where there is a chance of something as over there where they haven't found anything yet and because they are flying around anyway........ :shrug:

The raven(s) are getting braver again as are the crows

raven

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carrion crow

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Blackbird said:
I loved the video.
I'm curious, how do you tell a raven from a crow?
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Jack has given some good info there although ravens are bigger than buzzards but not as big as a red kite. Once you've heard a ravens cronk you won't forget it! The pictures above show the difference in bill size in comparison to there head size, crows is smaller whereas the ravens is almost as big as it's head and it also shows the tail shape differences.
 
sidknee said:
Jack has given some good info there although ravens are bigger than buzzards but not as big as a red kite. Once you've heard a ravens cronk you won't forget it! The pictures above show the difference in bill size in comparison to there head size, crows is smaller whereas the ravens is almost as big as it's head and it also shows the tail shape differences.
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Based on all your great photos of the buzzard, I would have expected the buzzards to be bigger than the red kites. You are getting way too good closeups ;)
 
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