RAVENS AND CROWS

Crows and ravens----big black birds; considered symbols of life, death, wisdom and evil---they are judged as both intelligent and unsavory. 

While in Grand Teton National Park last month I took some photos of some very large birds I thought were probably ravens. I don’t profess to be a bird expert and was curious about ways to tell the difference between ravens and crows.

Here’s what I gathered from several sources on the internet:  Both are members of the same family, (Corvus) which includes jays and magpies.

Ravens are the largest with a body size close to that of a house cat and with a wing span of around three and a half to four feet.  They have shaggy throat feathers and a large curved bill.  Their tails have a wedge or diamond profile and they have more pointed wings with long finger shaped feathers.  The raven’s most common call is a deep croaking or “cronk-cronk” sound.

American crows are closer to the body size of a squirrel with a wing span of around two and a half feet.  They make the familiar “caw-caw” sound but I’ve also heard them talk to each other with rattles, clicks and even bell-like notes.

Crows have more blunt and splayed wing tips and a fan shaped tail.  Their bill is flatter without the tuft of hairs seen on a raven.

Both are recognized as being some of the most intelligent of birds.  They’ve been seen making tools out of sticks, dropping nuts on pavement to break them and playing pranks on dogs.  They are scavengers and can find food even in the harshest conditions such as the dead of winter in Yellowstone Park.  Ravens have been seen following wild wolf packs to a kill; some stories even have ravens flying ahead of the wolves to lead them to prey.

The Norse god Odin was said to be attended by two ravens named Hugin and Munin who would fly about the world and return to perch on his shoulders and whisper gossip in his ears.  Inuit stories say the god Raven made all things, creating light out of mica flakes and humans out of rock. 

Native Americans have many legends about crows and ravens as both creators and tricksters.

For my post about an encounter between a crow and a squirrel at our place,

"Drama in the Yard", click here.

The illustrations are my watercolors.  They are for sale on my Etsy site. 
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