A.    Raven

 “Many people use the terms 'raven' and 'crow' interchangeably, but they are actually quite different. Technically, since ravens belong to the crow (corvus) family of birds, they can be called crows - but not all crows are ravens.” --shades of night.com

Here are some quick references to help distinguish between the two:

Common Raven (Corvus corax)                          American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)

common raven             

http://kaweahoaks.com/html/raven.html                                           http://www.seidata.com/~rausting/images/00/acrow00.jpg

 

RAVENS                                                  CROWS

·        About the size of a hawk                       •     About the size of a pigeon

·        Wedge-shaped tail                                •     Fan-shaped tail

raven's tail vs crow's tail
 

 

 

 

 *see illustration below

 

·        Feathers slightly pointed,                       •     Rounded feathers, even appearance

jagged lay; “ruff”

·        Prominent “swish” sound                       •     Usually silent wing beat

with wing beat

·        Prefer wilder areas                                •     Urban areas to compete for food

·        Pointed wings                                       •      Blunt, splayed wingtip

·        Larger, curved bill                                 •      More-or-less a flat bill

·        Tuft atop bill                                         •      Tuft absent on crows

Another assumption if you have spotted a large, black bird is that you are watching a raven as currently very few, if any crows are routinely spotted in the Coachella Valley . According to 2003 CBC (Christmas bird counts), 0-15 American crows have been spotted for the Coachella Valley .

Sources:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/difs.html

http://www.angelfire.com/id/ravensknowledge/ravensvscrows.html

storecrowingbottom.jpg (62417 bytes)
Raven(top) & Crow (bottom) underside of wings
Also shows the foot and one of the tail movements of flying bird.

http://www.vistainternetproducts.com/underwin.htm                                                                                                     [back to photo gallery]