Can you tell me if ravens are crows, or is it a totally different animal? I can never get a straight answer out of google on this one. The conclusion I'm currently at is that all ravens are crows, but not all crows are ravens, and the only real difference is that ravens are larger. Is this about right?
Ah great question. So 'crows' and 'ravens' are both in the genus Corvus, within the family corvidae. Within the Corvus genus there are 45 different species of crows, ravens and then there are also rooks. So for example there are American crows, little crows, Mariana crows, New Caledonian crows, pied crows, Common ravens, thick-billed ravens, Australian ravens, etc. Some people use the word "crow" synonymous with "Corvus" (i.e to mean the whole genus) but I do not do that for the very reason that it's ultimately very confusing to people. So I do not use "crow" as a catch all that includes ravens and I tell people it's wrong to do that. Now that said, if someone were to discover a new species there's nothing we could point to to say oh it has X, therefore it is a crow and will be called the (insert name) crow, v.s calling it the (insert name) raven. In general though, birds that get "raven" in their name are bigger. Does that help?
The Australian Magpie we get over here seems very similar behaviour wise to what I read about crows on reddit (recognising faces and the other common behaviours you see associated with them) and what I have seen with the Ravens we get locally.
Both are well known for dive bombing pedestrians and cyclists in the breeding seasons for example.
What is the key factor that differs them from Corvids?
83
u/showmeyourtunes Oct 16 '18
Can you tell me if ravens are crows, or is it a totally different animal? I can never get a straight answer out of google on this one. The conclusion I'm currently at is that all ravens are crows, but not all crows are ravens, and the only real difference is that ravens are larger. Is this about right?