I agree with you Mangetout. I was just trying to come up with some dark-coloured bird with a yellow beak that maight have been sitting on a wire…
:eek:
It’s hard to believe that anyone would confuse starlings with crows due to the great size difference. The blackbirds they have in the USA are not the same as the ones in Ireland. The Irish ones are Turdus merula and it’s the male that has the yellow beak, not the female (females have variously coloured beaks, some paler than others but not bright yellow). American blackbirds include several species, especially the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), which doesn’t have a yellow beak.
Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) have partly pale-coloured beaks, but they don’t occur in the USA. My guess is that sugaree’s friend is just mistaken.
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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by everton *The Irish ones are Turdus merula and it’s the male that has the yellow beak, not the female (females have variously coloured beaks, some paler than others but not bright yellow).
I stand corrected…
:smack:
This question was answered in today’s Farley comic strip.
Usually. But I have seen Ravens nesting in San Francisco, including a pair right in the middle of the busiest part of the SFSU campus ( though admittedly at the top of a pretty massive tree ).
- Tamerlane
There wild ravens in central Liverpool too. They nest at the top of the tower in the Anglican Catherdral.
Damn I thought I was going to impress you all with the beak color story… I guess I’ve always been wrong!
To me a Raven had a black beak, and a crow a yellow… Sigh…
We’re not in Ireland, so it couldn’t be an Irish blackbird. I’m curious now. I think I must accost him with some field guide to North American birds at some point in time.
I saw a gathering of what I thought were crows down at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. There were at least 20! Quite a shock to see. They were close to a foot tall - ravens?
Side question: a group of Crows is called a “murder” of crows, right? What is a group of ravens called?
An “unkindness.” I think it was just this morning that I mentioned how silly these collective names are in the “useless words” thread.
Probably crows. Crows are more likely to congregate in flocks like that and we grow crows pretty big out on the west coast. The ravens I’ve seen in the city are more usually in park-like atmospheres, like GG Park and generally not in those sort of numbers. I have seen small flocks of ravens on the coast, but probably not 20 - they’re more usually in pairs with the ( smallish ) flocks consisting of non-breeding and sub-adult animals. Crows, in contrast, are more usually cooperative breeders ( though they also form floater-flocks ).
Ravens average about 2’ long, which is probably a bit more than a foot tall :). An adult is pretty massive.
- Tamerlane
You haven’t seen the size of the crows on the Peninsula. It seems to me that they only started moving into residential neighborhoods in Cupertino, Santa Clara, etc. a few years ago, but they’re all over now, and these crows are huge. MUCH larger than the ones that annoyed the farmers I grew up around back in rural PA. But I’m pretty certain they’re crows, not ravens - they go “caw caw caw”, and have fan shaped tails. The references say crows can go to 21 in, which is a good-sized bird - I swear I’ve seen some 2-footers around here.
Crows host shows making fun of bad movies, and all a raven ever says is “Nevermore”
A few individual ravens can usually be found somewhere near my Mom’s place on the NorCal coast, about 5 hours north of San Francisco. They can be massive birds, especially when they’re eating lots of quality compost and horse feed. There’s nothing quite like taking a stroll through the woods and hearing the WHOOSH WHOOSH of their massive wings as they fly past. They are certainly the largest bird I’ve come in intimate contact with in any sort of natural setting.
[tangent/]
I’m saving my pennies for my next tattoo, which will be a tribalized raven back piece that I drew a few years back. I think these animals have incredible mojo. While historically considered omens, agents of the Underworld, or filthy pests…to me they symbolize the beauty of life growing from death, and all of that Circle of Life stuff…[/tangent]