# How to identify a big, black bird?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 12, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973 "2005-06-12T15:27:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973/1 "2005-06-12T15:27:39Z")
Is there any good, easy way to tell a raven from a crow, or can I call them all crows without the chance of being corrected?
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973/2 "2005-06-12T15:30:57Z")
See [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=311582&highlight=ravens) for a reasonably complete discussion.
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973/3 "2005-06-12T15:45:23Z")
That’s what I get for not searching. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973/4 "2005-06-12T16:14:50Z")
How silly and uniformed you are.
Ravens come in all colors - white, black brown, etc.
They tend to congregate in the Baltimore area. Althoug feral, they are a rather sociable species, migrating to other locales to coexist cheerfully (but sometimes ferociously) with other fearsome animals such as Lions, Bears, Jaguars and Bengal Tigers.
Their call is a mix of whooping outbursts of joy, alternating with anguished cries of extreme pain.
On the other hand, Crows are native Americans who don’t cotton to being compared to wild animals.
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973/5 "2005-06-12T16:35:22Z")
> [@E = mc²](#):
>
> How silly and uniformed you are.
>
> Ravens come in all colors - white, black brown, etc.
>
> They tend to congregate in the Baltimore area. Althoug feral, they are a rather sociable species, migrating to other locales to coexist cheerfully (but sometimes ferociously) with other fearsome animals such as Lions, Bears, Jaguars and Bengal Tigers.
>
> Their call is a mix of whooping outbursts of joy, alternating with anguished cries of extreme pain.
>
> On the other hand, Crows are native Americans who don’t cotton to being compared to wild animals.
Besides, any bird that gets written about by than drunken madman, Edgar Alan Poe, is probably a terrorist and belongs behind bars.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973/6 "2005-06-12T16:58:07Z")
If a creature is large, has wings and feathers, and the feathers are all black, you have probably identified a big black bird.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-identify-a-big-black-bird/307973/7 "2005-06-13T03:39:11Z")
> [@SmackFu](#):
>
> Is there any good, easy way to tell a raven from a crow, or can I call them all crows without the chance of being corrected?
In Connecticut, you can call any big black bird a crow and be pretty certain to be right. That won’t work farther north, though. And smaller black birds may be grackles, starlings, or even blackbirds.