What kind of bird is this?

November 19, 2006 1:51 PM

What kind of bird is this?

Likely taken in California. I'm pursuing the answer from the photographer, but I doubt he's an ornithologist. An affirmative answer would be great.

posted by upc_head to science & nature (13 comments total)

Common Crow.
posted by Citizen Premier at 2:26 PM on November 19, 2006

Looks like a crow. Ravens have a wedge shaped tail and a relatively larger/coarser beak. Of course it could be a starling since there's no way to tell how large it is.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:27 PM on November 19, 2006

Hmm... thought I erased that bit about starlings since looking at the photo again.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:29 PM on November 19, 2006

funny thing in Tokyo pushed-in faced crows with meaner dispositions displaced the nice friendly-faced crows like in this pic.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 2:39 PM on November 19, 2006

Carrion Crow? (from here)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:29 PM on November 19, 2006

I am amlost sure it is a Raven.
posted by comatose at 5:29 PM on November 19, 2006

If it plays the slideshow wait for it to get to the one flying with the grass background.
posted by comatose at 5:46 PM on November 19, 2006

Common Crow. Corvus brachyryhnchos, if my memory serves me. Nice pic.
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:44 PM on November 19, 2006

That is a fantastic photo. The tail features sure make it look like a crow. Also, most of the ravens I've seen have a thicker beak with the little fuzzy feathers at the top. It's hard to tell for sure without being able to see how big it is. A Raven is like the Fezzik to the crow's Inigo.
posted by Katravax at 8:04 PM on November 19, 2006

beautiful capture
posted by four panels at 8:40 PM on November 19, 2006

Yeah, I'm saying crow. Mainly the flying stature and the beak and wings. We have SO many here in San Francisco in the Inner Sunset and I watch them a lot. If that's a picture from the west coast, you may think raven just because he looks big, but the crows here are, uh, big. (My wife and I joke about the six foot crows. Kind of a joke. They are reallly big. Personally I like when they hang out on the power lines outside my computer window and caw. They are fun.)
posted by smallerdemon at 9:16 PM on November 19, 2006

If you're in North America, it's unlikely to be a Carrion Crow (and if it is, google [birding]+[your town/city/county] to find local groups - tell someone!). (Actually, in North America, the Black Vulture is apparently sometimes called the Carrion Crow, though they don't look anything like crows.)

The angle of the bird makes it a little hard to judge, I think. The tail appears to be rounded rather than wedge-shaped, but the angle isn't great (see the second photo here); the bill doesn't seem large enough to be a Raven's, but that angle...

Anything you can tell us about its flight style would be helpful. That said, I think it's a crow. And it's a beautiful photo!
posted by rtha at 9:16 PM on November 19, 2006

If you want to say that the bird is one of the general crow-like birds, the word is "corvid."
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:41 PM on November 19, 2006