Look at the eyes. Crows eyes are dark.

I found it easy to distinguish a crow from grackle, red wing blackbird and cow bird - eyes and colors - but the tail still confuses me, as I look for the round V’s. the sharp tail feathers and find I'm often wrong,

Not additional;  I look mainly at the beak because I've missed a couple looking at the tail.  But, I've missed a couple in this quiz, looking at the beak as well!  Sigh.  I believe, however, that I've learned a great deal thus far and I'm so excited about it!  I've even engaged my husband who's not as interested on the subject as I am, and he answered correctly about those snakes!  I live in Southern California and I'm very familiar with our beautiful crows; they 've fascinated me for a long time.

 

In searching for more information on the internet about crows, a few years ago, I came upon a gentleman's comment, which began: "well, of course you've read the book, 'The Tarantula in My Purse', and that's why you are on this site..", he says.  No, I thought, but I will definitely look into the book.  I bought it immediately, and that's when my love affair with these beautiful and intelligent creatures began.  I've shared this sweet little book with so many friends, that I never got it back from whoever the last such friend was!

 

Can't wait to continue my education with you!!  Thank you!

I live in Worcester County Massachusetts. I frequently see common grackles, redwing blackbirds, brown headed cowbirds, and American crows in my neighborhood. We've got a ton of local birds! I've very rarely see ravens here, and always in the western part of the state, though I saw many ravens when I visited the West Coast. I'm trying to ID a mystery blackbird I've spotted the last two summers. They look just like crows, but smaller--about the size of a mockingbird, with tails the same shape and proportion as an American crow and beaks similar to a crow, but just slightly smaller in proportion to the head. Their vocalizations are softer and less strident than an American crow's but deeper than most songbirds their size. More of a "WUH" than a "CAW." They've always shown up in small groups. I've never seen one alone. They are not irridescent like a grackle or raven, they're a plain matte black, and have no colored patches. Their heads are the same black as their bodies. They must be migrating when I've seen them, because they're uncommon sightings, always during summer. I don't recall ever seeing them before last year. I thought perhaps fish crow, but they're not known to come this far north and inland. Though with climate change, who knows? Our hardiness zone has changed over the years. Can some flocks of crows be small and fairly quiet? Unfortunately, I don't have a good zoom lens and haven't gotten close enough to catch good photos or videos. Would love to hear if anyone has thoughts or has seen these same blackbirds in the region!

Feel very confident about id of the american crow- been feeding a family for about 10 years now- haven’t seen too many Ravens here in the NW hill of Ct

I am apparently very good at identifying crows from ravens if they are right next to each other, are completely still, and I can put my face 6 inches away from them.

I think I am good at telling them apart in the field as well, but with no one to correct me, how would I know if I were mistaken?  I think the voices of crows and ravens are very distinctive, as are the tails if they are flying overhead.

I see Crows, Common Grackles, Boat-tailed Grackles,  and Red-winged Blackbirds regularly in my yard and when I am in Florida. I recently got a trip to Russia and saw Rooks, Hooded Crows and Eurasian Blackbirds but I am still waiting to see my first Raven. Given my familiarity with these others I am pretty confident that a Raven will stick out from the crowd.

One tip that I have read about and is helpful to me is that ravens will occasionally soar in flight whereas crows never do that. This only helps if the bird is flying, of course. I also look for that wedge-shaped tail in the raven for confirmation.

I observe ravens in Iceland (work there) where there the only corvid is the raven. So it's easy for me there - but here in NYC and in MA where I am a residet, I have trouble. I have spotted ravens in the city, and they are huge - I compare them with hawks for size, as they are usually about the same distance away as a hawk (far), fly in pairs, land on top of high buildings, and I've even been able to catch the "wedge-shaped" tail in a photo. There are a lot of crows in NYC and at the Cape (Cod/MA) common crows and fish crows. They are noisy and in small flocks, rarely alone. The ravens, if they call, are distinctive in their croak.

Those eyes on the grackle make it very easy to distinguish a grackle from a crow! I feel pretty good about distinguishing a raven from a crow, too, as long as I am close enough to eyeball its size! Crows are so gorgeous, and I'm not just saying that because they are in my last name! :D

The eyes and beak help me identify a crow. The Wings and tails in flight still confuses me.

Crows have dark/black eyes. Some of the other birds with which the crow is sometimes confused have yellow/light brown eyes.

Fairly confident

Yes appears to be many different things that help you distinguish the difference .

Size ,color of eyes  colors on body and tail feathers / shape  beaks

Yes, for the most part. But the crows around here in the Alberta Boreal are large. I've been listening mornings to a young family of ravens (judging only by sound). The fledgelings sound like crow caws, but when the adult chimes in, it's more of a cronk. I wouldn't bet the farm on identifying by sound.

Ravens are notably larger and have pointier tales and wings as well as a longer hooked beak

Yes I feel confident in identifying crows

I do see crows regularly (lots of them) and ravens less often, but still somewhat regularly (usually just one or two at a time). The first time I saw a raven in my area he was standing among a  group of crows and seagulls that I was feeding (he was hanging back a bit). At first I thought, that's a very large crow, as body-wise he was as large as a seagull... of course it wasn't a large crow, it was a raven. I got up to speed after that in telling the difference between the two. Sometimes it's harder at a distance, unless I hear their call... that's a real give-away.

I see both crows and ravens here in N California and have now learned to tell them apart by size and tail.

Yes I can tell the difference.

I’m not sure if there are Ravens here on the Monterey Bay, but I’m going to find out and if there are I will try to identify them.

The crow's facial features like eye and beak shape are different!

We don't have ravens in North Florida, so I don't need to distinguish between crows and ravens at home, but when traveling I can usually tell them apart by size and beak shape. I didn't know that ravens have longer throat feathers and that will be helpful for close up IDs in the future. Sometimes it's challenging to distinguish crows from grackles when they're flying. We also have Fish Crows, which I can distinguish from American Crows by their call.

The beak size and shape along with the eye coloring were two of the key identifiers that I took away from this lesson.

I am getting better at noticing beak size, eye color and tail shape/size. In New Jersey there are no ravens but plenty of grackles, red wings, cow birds and starlings. In flight is my biggest challenge.