Steph (crisis version)Loads of rooks out and about today! Haven't seen any hooded crows for a while, though. I hope the rooks aren't displacing them.
I taught my partner how to identify a rook (as opposed to a carrion crow) and now they always call out the "little fluffy rook trousers".
Identifying a raven is dead easy. If you're looking at it and going "ooh, is that a crow or a raven", it's a crow. If instead you're going "christ that bird's fucking enormous" it's a raven.
this thread has been your annual reminder that I am a corvid person
(my favourite is still the Eurasian magpie, they're so clever and so hilariously disrespectful, plus magpie folklore is AWESOME)
okay before anyone else says anything: yes, it is difficult to tell the difference between a crow and a raven if you don't have any indicators as to relative size, then you have to start squinting at the tail shape
but in general if you see a raven up close you KNOW it's a raven because it is LARGE 😊
also please don't ask me to identify birds that aren't corvids, I can do the obvious ones but sometimes people think I know ALL birds and while I am a Bird Respecter I am mostly knowledgeable about UK corvids
yet another addendum: my very silly guide for differentiating crows and ravens falls apart entirely in Australia, where crows and ravens are very similar sizes and usually ravens (but called crows anyway, I guess because this is a country that calls a non-corvid a magpie and words don't mean anything)
(this is a joke, before anyone gets pedantic)
thank you to the helpful Australians for educating me!
here is a raven seen pretty up close at the Tower of London! majestic and entirely unimpressed by tourists. a crow would be maybe two-thirds the height at most, and half the weight.
ETA: if you don’t know anything about the Tower of London ravens I suggest giving this a read https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/the-ravens/
it took me a while to find the above photo in my camera roll as it’s from 2018. searching my camera roll for “raven” only provided me with the following memes
blueorangeblue
@blueorangeblue Ooh, I never read this one! Looks like kid-me would have loved it. Quentin Blake illustrations, too!
@astronomerritt yes lots of anarchic raven action :)
Joe (TBA)@astronomerritt wow, they let you get close.
@RegGuy The Tower of London ravens see a LOT of humans, they are pretty much tame but only the Ravenmaster is allowed to interact with them, as they are not afraid to bite if tourists get over-familiar.
The reasons why some ravens have been “fired” from their post are hilarious.
@astronomerritt I only have passing knowledge about these ravens. There is so much to learn about in the world. Even at nearly 70 and being forever curious, I still did not know about what you sent me. Fascinating.
@RegGuy I hope this doesn’t offend you, as I mean it as a high compliment, but you really do remind me of my dad sometimes: he’s very similar in his attitude to the world and learning new things.
@astronomerritt OMG, highest compliment to be compared to one's dad. Thank you!
He and I are probably about the same age. At least the same generation.
@RegGuy He's 67, so very close. Though he insists he's "sixty-seventeen".
@astronomerritt Hah, up until a few years ago I swore I was a 27 y/o in an old man's body. Hah!
CCochard@astronomerritt @RegGuy don't mean to interfer but as a french person, I would like to point out that sixty-seventeen is 77.
@astronomerritt @RegGuy and to stay on topic, we have beautiful European jays visiting our garden
@CCochard Oh that's lovely! I haven't seen a jay for a long while: they're apparently much shyer in Ireland.
@CCochard @astronomerritt Are european jays Corvids?
@astronomerritt @CCochard It's hard to know because old naming conventions often conflated looks with genus. Like the American Robin and the European Robin. They hardly look alike, but they both have red breast coloring.
@RegGuy Oh yeah. That's why we have the Australian Magpie.
Matt@astronomerritt I met that birdie a few years ago, too
OldDutchCap@astronomerritt For what little it's worth (FWLIW) my understanding, perhaps wrong, is that the story about the ravens and the Tower of London only dates back to Victorian times.
@onorio The thing about the monarchy falling if the ravens ever leave? Yeah, the Tower's own historian will tell you that's probably a Victorian invention. Cool story though.
@astronomerritt Agreed!
T. J. Bombadil@astronomerritt I thought I’d seen a lot of ravens in my day until I actually saw one and realized that those had all been crows. Good lord they’re huge!
@c_dan4th Bigger than most hawks! The first time I saw one in the wild was in the Canary Islands and it took me a while to convince myself I was looking at a raven and not some sort of goth bird of prey.
@astronomerritt it’s like Golden Eagles here in the Rockies. “You’ll know it when you see one” was a friend’s advice and he was correct! Bloody huge!
⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe@c_dan4th @astronomerritt there are multiple species of raven and crow and it's not always easy to tell them apart. But in the UK we are almost always talking about the giant guys in the picture, yes.
We have a couple locally. ridiculously smart, don't give a shit. i love them.
@fishidwardrobe @c_dan4th Oh, I'm aware. I've already got a post about the Australian Situation around here somewhere. I wasn't expecting my posts to do numbers, else I might have been more specific about region in the first place.
I bloody love ravens. Wish I had some local ones!
Charlie Phillips/Dolphinchaz@astronomerritt I see ravens up close when I drive up a mountain pass in West Scotland - I'll stop at a small car park and sit at a picnic bench and listen. Very soon I'll hear the familiar 'cronk cronk' of one of the big beauties and then one or two will whizz past, chasing each other. One visit, a curious bird landed about twenty feet away and was croaking and rumbling to me. I was honoured to be in his\her company. Huge bird, quite intimidating if you're not used to wild birds like raptors.
Lydia Schoch@astronomerritt @nellie_m So majestic. I would read poetry to them to see if they liked it.
(But probably not The Raven since I’m sure they hear Poe all too often).
@lydiaschoch The expression on that raven’s face is “say Nevermore to me one more time and I will PECK YOUR EYES OUT”
@astronomerritt @lydiaschoch this is the standard expression of all ravens, all the time.
…except the Tower ravens when with their ravenmaster. I think the guy posts on BS these days. worth a look!
@fishidwardrobe @lydiaschoch The new one? It was Chris Skaife for a while, I have his book, but I found out recently that he retired this year. What a job!
Daniel Lakeland@astronomerritt
Its hard to tell because of the camera perspective issue, but I do think your ravens are bigger than ours in Southern California.
Its hard to tell because of the camera perspective issue, but I do think your ravens are bigger than ours in Southern California.
@dlakelan You guys have the Common Raven in Southern California, which is what this raven is, so it may be a difference between a wild raven and a tame one? Though I saw a wild raven in the Canaries that was even bigger than this one 😅
@astronomerritt
The most common place to see ravens here is either up in a tree or scavenging food out of peoples yards or whatever. In any case at least 30 feet away (10m). So its hard to compare to a bird that seems to be just an arms length away. A lot of times I identify the ravens at a distance by their crazy vocalizations that sound like someone playing xylophone or something. I dont think the crows make those sounds. But I'm no expert there.
The most common place to see ravens here is either up in a tree or scavenging food out of peoples yards or whatever. In any case at least 30 feet away (10m). So its hard to compare to a bird that seems to be just an arms length away. A lot of times I identify the ravens at a distance by their crazy vocalizations that sound like someone playing xylophone or something. I dont think the crows make those sounds. But I'm no expert there.
Sci Fi Brickyards 🚀@astronomerritt
We all know the truth, thanks to Brigadier Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
We all know the truth, thanks to Brigadier Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
PJ Evans@astronomerritt It's fun to wander the Tower and see tourists taking photos of crows, assuming them to be the famous ravens.
@mrpjevans Oh god, do they?? Bless their hearts. I don't blame them, most people absolutely do not know the difference.
Alex Lindsay@astronomerritt this is a very long camera shot, but for scale those rocks range from half a foot to a foot or so, this ~dinosaur~ bird might have been a local god or spirit.
This is at The Pinnacles in Western Australia
@Slagh Ooh, and that would probably be an Australian Raven, which apparently trends a bit smaller than the common raven. (I learned about Australian corvids yesterday though so don't take my word for it.) Great photo and a very nice bird!
Jocelynephiliac 
@astronomerritt @catsalad I want to hug it
@twipped I understand this urge. I bought a stuffed raven from the Tower of London gift shop. Much less likely to claw me to death.
Fjord In Progress@astronomerritt @twipped The love it when you sit on a bench up a bit from the food stand and throw bits of grilled cheese sandwiches over the metal fencing onto the lawn for them to gobble.
@semiotic_pirate Sounds like the sort of thing the Ravenmaster would shout at you for!