The call of a raven can be best described as a deep, hollow croak. With a little practice American crows and common ravens can easily be distinguished by their calls. Ravens also have more slender, pointed primaries relative to crows. While both birds have 10 primary feathers, in flight, ravens will look like they have four main “finger” feathers while crows will appear to have five. Additionally, although they are a bit more subtle, there are also some differences in the primary wing feathers.
Whereas crows have a more squared or rounded tail (depending on how much they’ve fanned the feathers) a raven’s tail will have a distinct wedge shape. Fortunately, the tail offers a reliable field mark in this case. During threat displays for example, ravens will fluff out both the throat hackles and their “ear” tufts.įor birds in flight, however, it’s often difficult-if not impossible-to clearly see the throat feathers. In addition to the hackles, ravens can also articulate some of their other facial feathers in way crows cannot. When vocalizing or displaying the raven’s hackles become especially obvious. That’s because ravens, by mass, are about twice the size of an American crow. This especially helpful if you live in an area where they overlap, but even if you don’t, I find that people who are used to seeing crows take notice when they see a raven in person because it feels ~aggressively~ large. Overall size can be a good place to start.
Fortunately, there are many different types of clues you can use to tell one from the other, so feel free to use the links to skip around to what interests you.Īlthough crows and ravens are superficially quite similar, there are variety of features that can be used to tell one from the other. But with the right tools and a little practice you can most certainly develop the skill. For two birds that are surprisingly far apart on the family tree, American crows ( Corvus brachyrhynchos) and common ravens ( Corvus corax) can be awfully hard to distinguish, especially if you rarely see both together.
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