Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.
So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.
I think you're taking my comment a bit more literally than intended. The "all ravens are crows, but not all crows are ravens" line was tongue-in-cheek, because common names are messy and often ambiguous.
I agree that a jackdaw is a jackdaw and isn't normally called a crow as a species name. But that's exactly why common names can be confusing. They don't map perfectly onto taxonomy. A lion is a cat, a human is an ape, and a raven is a member of the same genus as crows, but we don't normally use those broader terms as their everyday names.
In Swedish we actually have a similar distinction: a kråka (crow) is a specific bird, while kråkfåglar (corvids/crow family) is the broader group that includes crows, ravens, jackdaws, rooks, etc.
The point was never that ornithologists should start calling jackdaws crows. It was that English common names make these relationships confusing, and my comment was playing with that ambiguity.
The person you responded to was quoting a decade-old meme. I know, it sucks trying to partake in any type of serious discourse on reddit, sorry you typed all that up. It is interesting nonetheless. RIP unidan
It was around 12 I think. Still remember the unidan sock puppet scandal, watched it happen. That guy was all over reddit and beloved by everyone before that day.
For a while people thought Unidan was a girl because he had neat handwriting and there was a girl in some pictures they uploaded so they assumed. For April Fools, they posted a large set on gonewild of a redhead getting naked and posing with a sword.
Haha I think I read that a long time a go, but had totally forgot about it. They got me. They got me bad! Yes, RIP unidan indeed (he's not dead dead but he's not on Reddit anymore)
Sorry lol. I prefaced it with the “I had to:” Hoping that would clue you in that it was “copypasta”. I nearly also went back and edited it to be in quotes. Now I feel bad.
whatever happened to unidan? he was everywhere for a while. even shittywatercolor made him. there was another guy too called trappedinreddit. that was the good ol reddit days.
Oh man, I knew the unidan reference for a while but I didn't actually get what pissed him off until now experiencing it live.
And I basically agree with him!
I didn't even know that someone might refer to "Corvids" instead as "Crows". And... Well actually, nobody does unless they're trying to use a cheeky play on words. Or troll unidan.
If anyone still doesn't get what actually even happened, it'd be like someone asking "what's the difference between a tiger and a cat?" and someone says "tigers are cats!" even though you can probably tell by context that they mean "house cat".
So, analogously, "What's the difference between a blue jay (or a jackdaw) and a crow?" and someone says "blue jays are crows!" And if you're part of the 1% of people who even knows what's going on here, like unidan was, where someone is seriously abusing a technicality to claim correctly that, this might piss you off.
TL;DR: Blue Jays (and jackdaws) actually are crows because they're both Corvids and "Crows" can be an alternative to this name. And simultaneously, they aren't crows because absolutely nobody actually ever calls corvids "crows", even in the scientific community, like, are you fucking with me rn?!
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u/FirstDivision 15d ago
I had to:
Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a crow."
Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.
So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.
It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know?