# Raven or a Crow (if the Raven was prepared)?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 18, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607 "2007-09-18T14:59:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/1 "2007-09-18T14:59:23Z")
What is the difference between _Corvus Corvus_ and _Corvus Corax_? While we commonly say Ravens are just Crows with fancy haircuts, is there an easier way to spot the difference? After all, Ravens only display their crests when they are displaying.
I am reading “Mind of the Raven,” but this basic question stumps me. Wikipedia does not seem to help. A search here did not help.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/2 "2007-09-18T15:18:18Z")
I don’t think there’s a species called _Corvus corvus_…do you mean Corvus corone, the carrion crow? Carrion crows are smaller than the common raven.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/3 "2007-09-18T15:22:39Z")
To show my ignorance. I thought Corvus Corvus was the common crow. Corvus Corax being one or another of the ravens.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/4 "2007-09-18T15:24:11Z")
Ravens get quite large - at least up here they do. There is no mistaking one for a crow. However, I’m not a birdologist.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/5 "2007-09-18T15:26:54Z")
So this led me to the Wiki entry for _Common Raven_ which states:
Apart from its greater size, the Common Raven differs from its cousins, the crows, by having a larger and heavier beak, a shaggy throat, and a wedge-shaped tail.[20] The species has a distinctive, deep, hollow pruk-pruk-pruk call, which to experienced listeners is unlike that of any other corvid. Its very wide and complex vocabulary includes a high, knocking toc-toc-toc, a dry, grating kraa, a low guttural rattle and some calls of an almost musical nature.[21]
Is that it? Throat feathers and size? Crows can get dan big too.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/6 "2007-09-18T15:32:08Z")
Well, my bird knowledge is a bit rusty but yeah, from what I remember Ravens are bigger and well, squarer. Looking at pictures and seeing them at a distance might make it hard to see the differences but if you’ve ever seen the two species together the difference is more obvious.
Someone should poke that Colibri guy.
Oh, as for the question posed in the OP. I always imagined crows as faster, cleverer and feistier (except when being chased by mockingbirds, they don’t like being mocked) and ravens struck me as slower (in thought and action) and more lethargic. So even though he’s smaller, I think the crow would win, especially if he had tools.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/7 "2007-09-18T15:57:33Z")
Whooosh!
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/8 "2007-09-18T15:59:58Z")
Isn’t a raven more like a writing desk?
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/9 "2007-09-18T16:00:39Z")
The Raven is Nevar prepared.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/10 "2007-09-18T16:23:06Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi]
Whooosh!
[/QUOTE]
Gosh, sorry, I don’t know every reference in popular and non-popular culture. Does it have something to do with that TV show with the former Cosby kid?
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/11 "2007-09-18T16:26:44Z")
For some reason there is a current meme going around asking if X could beat Y if Y was prepared. Where that comes from I have no idea.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/12 "2007-09-18T16:38:16Z")
All you have to do is ask it what its lordly name is, on the night’s Plutonian shore.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/13 "2007-09-18T16:38:47Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi]
For some reason there is a current meme going around asking if X could beat Y if Y was prepared. Where that comes from I have no idea.
[/QUOTE]
Oh the Batman thing. Even when people use such memes I figure they are genuinely asking a question, especially if it’s in the forum called General Questions.
My response wasn’t completely serious though. Except for the thing about the crow tools. I’m always serious about crow tools.
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### Author:  [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/14 "2007-09-18T16:42:45Z")
[Crows vs Ravens](http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/difs.html)
The key differences (easily observable ones, anyway), are mentioned in that link.
More differences are mentioned [here](http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm#raven).
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/15 "2007-09-18T16:54:39Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos]
All you have to do is ask it what its lordly name is, on the night’s Plutonian shore.
[/QUOTE]
Truly I beseeched the bird, beseeched him for but a single word
“Oh please, avian visitor, lend me your wisdom, I implore
Tell me, are you crow or raven, I beg of you, be not craven
But stay and give me answer to this one simple piece of lore
Just a quick easy answer to this simple piece of lore.”
But he answered nevermore.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/16 "2007-09-18T17:05:24Z")
[QUOTE=Darwin’s Finch]
[Crows vs Ravens](http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/difs.html)
The key differences (easily observable ones, anyway), are mentioned in that link.
More differences are mentioned [here](http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm#raven).
[/QUOTE]
YOu will be pleased to learn that the crow and raven calls on your first link have caused endless amusement to by parrot. Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/17 "2007-09-18T17:43:06Z")
[QUOTE=Darwin’s Finch]
More differences are mentioned [here](http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm#raven).
[/QUOTE]
Less ornithologically, there are some differences [here](http://www.khandro.net/animal_bird_raven_crow.htm) also.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/18 "2007-09-18T18:31:42Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
I’m not a birdologist.
[/QUOTE]
But you toss that jargon around so cromulently!
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/19 "2007-09-18T19:11:22Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
Isn’t a raven more like a writing desk?
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know, I can’t even tell a hawk from a handsaw.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raven-or-a-crow-if-the-raven-was-prepared/419607/20 "2007-09-18T19:14:47Z")
Ravens have names like Lenny: crows have names like Carl.
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