1 of 3 Ravens. I still sometimes have difficulty separating Raven from Carrion Crow when a flying or perched bird is seen against the sky, from the side, and there is nothing nearby for size comparison. There is not a vast size difference between a large Crow bill and a small Raven bill. The new photographic 'ID Handbook of European Birds' mentions a useful Raven feature that can be seen well in the lower photo of this bird (which has a small bill for a Raven): "the distal part of the upper mandible is strongly curved".
5 comments:
Hi Peter
Who did you buy your new ID books from please? And where printed? Mine printed in Italy. I bought from NHBS. It's absolutely full of colour printing errors eg lots of blue in plumage that should be white, for one example.
Hi Mick. Mine also is NHBS/Printed in Italy. Most of the photos look good to me, but I have found pale blue on individual Golden Eagle, Grey-tailed Tattler, Red-throated pipit, and Bar-headed Goose. I haven't looked at all pages yet. Have you found other colours that are wrong? Peter
Very very many. Publishers don't accept. Look at eagle owl blue feather tips. Red grouse bright purple wings. Where birds have pale grey shadows in light many have blue. Or white in plumage blue. Other thing is grey smearing in white so squicco heron has all grey tail not white as does a flying common gull. There are loads. Gulls book printed in Spain no blue in white
Look at mistle thrush wing in flight ..blue where light would shine through. You'll find this on other thrushes. Pale mandibles blue. Pallas grasshopper Warbler blue in tail. White tips in tall a famous id feature!.
Not good. And it is interesting that in 'Europe's Birds' - also Princeton, also Printed in Italy - a flying Mistle Thrush has blue wings and a flying adult Common Gull has grey in the tail.
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