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I can mostly tell crows apart from other "black birds", usually by checking the tail (in the case of grackles) or looking for a color other than black on the bird (Red-wings, cowbirds). One tip for separating grackles from Corvids is iridescence - the black on a grackle is not a true black but is iridescent and shines with blues and greens in direct sunlight (beautiful). Grackles and other blackbirds also have a light- or white-colored iris, unlike crows and ravens which have dark irises (admittedly, you do need to be closer to the bird to see the iris color, but these birds often land on the ground or perch in trees which makes identifying iris color simpler). I live in central NC but often visit the Outer Banks of NC. Both American and Fish Crows occur in the Outer Banks, with Fish Crows more common. Now, those two species are very hard to tell apart. The best way I know to tell the difference is voice - they sound quite different, but doesn't help when the crow flying by or perched is silent. I know the Fish Crow is smaller than the American Crow, but that is only useful if one happens to see both species next to each other (that doesn't happen, or at least has never happened for me). Any additional tips for identifying these 2 species would help.
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Sound is certainly the best way to tell apart American Crows vs. Fish Crows as you have already pointed out. Even experts sometimes cannot tell these species apart visually unless they have them 'in the hand'. From the instructor: Fish Crows are a bit more glossy purple, but this difference is very difficult to detect. Fish Crows have more slender bills and feet than American Crows. (Foot size is especially noticeable when contrasted against the large-footed south Florida race of the American Crow, C. b. pascuus.) But bill size varies quite a bit in American Crows, with males having larger bills. A small billed female American Crow can have the same look in the face as a Fish Crow. Fish Crows show a shorter legged look when walking on the ground. The "thigh" (actually the tibiotarsus) shows less prominently than is typical with an American Crow. The feathers on the upper back of American Crows show a decidedly "ringed" or "scaled" effect not shown by Fish Crows. This character is especially obvious when the crow is between the sun and the observer. The upper back feathers of Fish Crows are more lax at the tips (without barbs holding them together), and consequently the upper back is without rings. In fact, on the upper back no individual feathers can be distinguished. See if you can detect this difference on the head shots at the top of the page. (The exposure of the shots is very different, but the effect is still there.) The "Wing Formula" differs between the species. The outermost primaries on the wings are of different proportions. On a bird in the hand these can be measured easily, but they are not easily seen in the field. Primaries (the feathers that come out of the hand part of the wing) are numbered starting from the inside of the wing, and in crows the outermost one is primary number 10. In Fish Crows, the 9th primary (p9) is the same size as, or is slightly longer than the 5th primary (p5), while in American Crows p5 is markedly longer than p9. The effect of this differences is that the Fish Crow wing is somewhat more pointed in appearance. This difference is hard to see in the field and is not definitive. It should be used as an indication only. Molt and individual wear can give misleading impressions. Fish Crows have a faster wingbeat than American Crows. In an area where both species occur the difference in wingbeat frequency can be an indication of the species, but this is not a definitive character. Not all crows of a given species fly at the same wingbeat rate. Juvenile and yearling American Crows usually fly with a faster beat rate than do adults (just not as efficient fliers?), and molt or feather wear can affect the rate too. And sometimes crows are just more in a hurry than at other times. Fish Crows use a different posture for calling than American Crows. Fish Crows tend to stay more hunched and shorter necked, and typically fluff their throat feathers. American Crows tend to stretch their necks a bit, and do not substantially fluff their throat feathers. American Crows molt earlier than Fish Crows. During the summer the two species can be distinguished by their stages of molt. In much of their range American Crows breed a month or more earlier than Fish Crows (Johnston 1961, The biosystematics of American crows, Univ. of Washington Press; Clapp and Banks 1993, Raven 64: 90-98; McGowan 2001, Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) in Birds of North America, No. 589). In upstate New York American Crows start incubation the first week of April, while Fish Crows don't start until May. Most birds do not molt until they are finished breeding, and the molting schedules of the two crows reflect the month difference in their breeding schedule. The earliest Ithaca American Crows (non-breeders and those whose nests have failed) will start molting in June and will be finished by the end of September. Ithaca Fish Crows, on the other hand, start molting in late July and don't finish until October. Source: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/FishCrow.htm
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Mostly confident. Check out tails
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- We don't get any visits from ravens where I live. The only other black (looking) birds we have around here are grackles. There are some crows that visit every so often -- they usually fly over in groups. Very sociable they are. Their calls give them away to their presence. I love all corvids, and I love to see crows around. My name is Raven, so I guess I'm biased for this bird species.
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I am confident in my ability to distinguish crows from ravens and other birds with superficial similarities, but not confident in identifying all of the non-corvid 'blackbirds' yet. I am hopeful that this will come with more practice.
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This is going fine but I will be d..d if I can get to the next lesson!!! Im cawing my head off.
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I'm not that confident in my ability to identify the American Crow yet. However, I always look at the beak and the tail feathers when I see a Crow. The beak on the Crow seems less pointed and "chubbier" than the beak a lot of black birds have.
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I feel confident that I can distinguish between Crows and Ravens. Not sure I've seen a Grackle. But I'll look for the yellow eyes.
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Many of the discussants noted the yellow eye color of the grackles and other non-crows. In addition, in the first lesson, I noted that some of the Crows have squared-off tails rather than rounded.
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No. I live in an area where skies are often gray, so these perfect photos are not what I usually see. I have never seen a Brewer's Blackbird. I have to travel a long way for Boat-tailed or Great-tailed Grackles. My binoculars rarely give me a look at the eye which helps with Grackle ID, and I have great binoculars. Birds in flight will always be a struggle and with Crows there is the need to learn wing motion to decide if you have a distant crow or a raptor. So, no confidence with flight. Of the birds you selected we get cowbirds, red-wings, Common Grackles, Crows.
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You bought up a good point about the binoculars. The pair I have aren't; that good for seeing and identifying birds, or maybe it's my inability. I'm going to try to get a good powerful set of binoculars. Thanks for bring that to mind.
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I struggle with wing and tail shapes when I can't see a grackle's color or eye
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I don't get opportunities for Ravens around here. But I know most of the different characteristics. My issue is always the bird in flight. The pointier wing is new to me. Still working on the tail shape and neck differences. I ID more by sound when I bird and I have a lot to learn
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Birding by sound is a challenge for me, unless it's a species that I encounter very frequently. Any tips for learning by ear? Happy birding!
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If I can’t see the bird I can usually tell by the call. Wings, tails, beak, ruff all help in distinguishing between the crow and the raven. Between the Corvid and other black birds, no contest.
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Though I got 100% on all the quizzes, I still tend to second guess myself with the crows vs. ravens. I feel sitting and watching their mannerisms has helped. For example how their heads move when they are making vocalizations. The pointy all around and throat feather clues are big takeaways from this lesson.
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FYI to everyone: In all our ID courses make sure to click "replay" on the Snap IDs as each time it will give you new match ups and pull in some photos you haven't seen yet. I suggest in any course that has a Snap ID play that one over and over as it helps to train your brain.
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I still feel uncertain differentiating between crows and ravens when I see them flying or from a short distance.
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A couple things that I've found helpful is flight pattern and wing shape. It seems that crows have a 'rowing' wing stroke with rounded wings and seldom fly without flapping, while ravens are very red-tailed-hawk-like in the air: more pointed wingtips, infrequent wingbeats and much more likely to soar. Hope that helps : ) Happy birding!
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Most of the black birds and grackles have light colored eyes. While the crow has dark eyes.
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ravens usually hang out at higher elevations in Oregon
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Ravens abound here in Colorado, as well.
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This one was easy. I had a much harder time with the first one, crows vs ravens. Even knowing the distinction between tail shape and number of “fingers”, I missed several.
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Yes, I found it much more challenging to distinguish them from pictures of ravens.
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I go mainly by ear—they are both much more ‘visible’ by sound than sight. Outside of downtown Philadelphia, along the river, we have American Crows, Fish Crows, and the occasional Common Raven.
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I agree, it is much easier to ID by sound. I am a novice birder and just don't seem to be quick enough to catch flight. Bonnie
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I find the trick seems to be to look at ALL the clues - wings (rounded, five fingered), tail (square ended), head shape, beak shape, dark eyes, feathers around head and neck. Any one of these may not be enough to identify (especially wing tips), but if I can see more than one part clearly, then I can probably accurately identify a crow.
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All of the characters reduced into one form: that of crow. Gestalt!
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My tip is that non-crows are sometimes more glossy, like their feathers have more oils.
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How interesting! I will pay more attention to this in the field. Thanks for the neat tip!
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Yes, I am quite confident.
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Crows have dark eyes, many other black birds have yellow eyes
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I noticed that, too, but I wasn't sure if that was always the case.
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@Karrin It isn’t always the case. I noticed the eye color difference between the American Crow and other blackbirds during one of the flying ID quizzes and applied the eye color technique to the next question. I was shocked to get it wrong! The Boat Tailed Grackler had darker eyes, and the American Crow had lighter eyes, because of the way the light was hitting them!
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@Chelsea This is a good point you mention. Kevin McGowan has a "Rule of Three" when it comes to bird ID and part of that is to try to find at least three distinguishing characteristics when making a bird identification as relying on just one feature will rarely work.
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Between crow and raven, sometimes the fully spread raven tail looks like a crow to me. learning the wing tips! I have both around my home, so want to know them apart flying overhead.
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I really like that you can count the number of “finger” feathers. 5 for crows and 4 for ravens!
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In person, it's easy for me to distinguish crows from ravens. Ravens aren't really in my area, so I don't see them much, if at all. But if I do see them, they are much larger than crows, so that makes it easy. Seeing pictures of each bird is a little more challenging. As far as crows vs. other blackbirds, I start with eye color, as many other black birds have light eyes, whereas crows have dark eyes. I also look for other colors in the feathers. Crows are all black, but other blackbirds may have sheen in their feathers or even bright colors or distinguishing colors.
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