Crows, Rooks, Ravens, Jackdaws, Jays and Magpies

Who on earth was TGL?

Where was this thread when Mark H, Johnny B and I were arguing about whether the massive black birds on Hampstead Heath were crows or rooks?

Where there's crows, that's a rock. Where there's a rook, that's a crow.

I'm so confused. WHITE SPOT. WHITE SPOT ON BEAK = ROOK. Is that the rule of thumb? (or beak as the case may be?)

ROOK is a card game, that IIRC, involves putting cards on a table or possibly forcing people to trade them.

so many beautiful magpies, who knew?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Thimindu_2010_02_20_Sinharaja_Sri_Lanka_Blue_Magpie_1.jpg/220px-Thimindu_2010_02_20_Sinharaja_Sri_Lanka_Blue_Magpie_1.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Cissa_hypoleucor_concolor_qtl1.jpg/220px-Cissa_hypoleucor_concolor_qtl1.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Urocissa_erythrorhyncha.jpg/800px-Urocissa_erythrorhyncha.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Cissa_chinensis_-Chiang_Mai_Zoo%2C_Thailand-8a.jpg/398px-Cissa_chinensis_-Chiang_Mai_Zoo%2C_Thailand-8a.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Urocissa_caerulea.jpg/800px-Urocissa_caerulea.jpg

Second one down looks like a species of kingfisher rather than some sort of corvid. Magpie kingfisher perhaps? All of those are beautiful though!

Does look kingfisheresque, but it's an Indochinese Green Magpie apparently.

But then again, his tail is long and magpie-like and his beak is shorter than a kingfishers, so I'm clearly talking out of my underpants.

xp- oh right, thanks!

I would have gone straight to the wrong section of the field guide obviously.

My handy tip for telling crows from rooks: crows look like they mean business. They could be bouncers - only for exclusive high-end clubs though. Rooks look like mad old professors.

It's true, those rooks with their big brainy shiny dome heads and scruffy trousers.

i just saw a crow divebombing a smaller bird that was flying through the same airspace. must be dinnertime!

saw 1 of these guys out jogging earlier, nvr noticed these dudes b4, looked hella boss, the red/orange was just like piping u could barely see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird

I see you trying to sneak yer icterids into our thread of corvids.

*blushes*

When I go home to Minnesota and I hear the redwing blackbirds calling it always puts me in the best mood.

Corvids = the best of all families. My power animals. Another good book about corvid smarts: Bird Brains.

We have a pet starling that we raised from a rescued chick, and he's not a corvid (closest relative - Mynah Bird) but he talks like CRAZAY. He acquires words and then goes all jazzbo stringing them together in different sequences, mixed up with nonsense muttering.

There are some great Youtubes of talky ravens. My favorite is the one whose phrase is 'Hello TERRY' spoken with the greatest disdain.

i watched hitchcock's the birds today, for the first time, somewhat randomly (i have an admittedly rather aspie way of picking what movie to watch of what i have on hand & it doesnt involve what weird threads are bumped) & right after i went out on my front porch to go jogging & was looking down fiddling w/ my ipod & i swear 2 god a bird FLEW @ MY FACE

i think i have an irrational fear of crows

Are there any around? If so it isn't irrational, they can really slice you up. I once got attacked by one that was nesting (presumably) nearby, while walking a few km's to the next town. It felt like it'd just hit me, until blood started spurting on to my shirt. I cleaned that up, got to the shop and was happily served while buying some wine, got home and discovered the entire side of my head was matted with blood. South Auckland liquor stores see some shit, I suppose.

Oh it was a magpie tho, which're p similar. These birds (corvids) are the best. So many cool videos of them solving puzzles that'd stump some ppl I've known.

crazy story albvivertine :-/

there's tons of crows around, some in the trees in front of my place. Yeah they're smart and their face recognition is pretty nuts.

one of my friends has a pet magpie, and she's amazing (she lives in taranaki, albvivertine) - super friendly, loves to be petted, will happily snuggle. she was found in a forest, fell out of her nest quite young, i think? and some forest ranger dude gave her to my friend to look after, and she's just stuck around. they also have a tripod cat and big old german shepherd (cop school reject), and she chases them both around.

Oh I'd love that.

Not sure if I can link to instagram but here's a photo of me hanging out with Yoda and trying really hard not to laugh

https://instagram.com/p/BMiZO9rFtkFLsIqYFoOydKd-7qsoCUj3fCeKPw0/

^ that's great

Fake magpie.

(I find it odd how different the birds with the same names in UK and US usually are)

That photo was taken in New Zealand!

(and Australasia)

Oh, American and European magpies are related but the Australian ones are unrelated and aren't corvids.

Sorry, that sounded more dismissive than i meant it to be.

English magpies are, for something that it just black and white, quite striking in a way the others don't seem to be (based on photos I've seen)

(Sat here watching Godzilla 1984 i can hear one outside somewhere)

Timely!

Nice. You can see the iridescence on the wings which makes them look slightly blue.

Oh, there was a guy with about 30 crows around him in Hyde park this afternoon, feeding them something.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/28/return-canuck-crow-notorious-birds-bloody-attacks-force-canada/

This is a typical view when eating lunch on clapham common. No crumbs from me, pals.

http://i.imgur.com/6VeZgEv.jpg

Tom, that link is insane

great doc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89C5gsdaSXg

I fucking love crows

Photo from Clapham common also seems to be behaviour during storms here and after it's rained. Do they eat worms? Would seem to be the one likely explanation for them doing that here since there are rarely p[eople around when I see them doing that.

Also really interesting watching interplay of different bird species around teh marketplace on Sunday when it becomes more of a food court.
Tend to be some kind of corvid, seagulls and pigeons. Corvid which is probably a crow has intelligence and can open closed food containers i.e. can undo the catch on the plastic food tray that my Indian takeaway running friend uses or can work out where to peck through on a plastic tray among other skills. Seagulls have apparently learnt how to peck through food trays from the crows. Pigeons seem to need food to be placed in front of them for it to register.
Wondering now if that is over-domestication or something.

Crows tap the ground to simulate rain so worms come up, yeah

There's a tree along my driveway that's dense enough to keep out most predators so for the second season running, the local scrub jays have used it for their HQ nest. They like grabbing pieces of dead flowers from my dining room window, but split as soon as we're done regarding each other and I try to take a photo. This one is through the kitchen window.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1735/41667779635_369c0f504a_k.jpg

i saw a sunbathing crow last friday. the path i was on went within 6ft of it and it just sat there not caring.

https://t.co/6phuVtAlEK

^ crows leave gifts for people who feed them

Living in the land of ravens rn. Truly aliens among us.

how have i not seen this thread before

i regularly (once a week) pass through clapham common almost at the exact spot from where ledge's photo was taken. the crows of clapham common are a most fascinating and abundant community

love any revelation of corvids' vast intelligence

Broken image link from 13 years ago...

> These dudes are all over Richmond Park

Jackdaws. Was amazed at how many jackdaws I saw in Richmond park and how they don't care about you being 5ft away. Didn't think I'd seen a jackdaw before then until my dad pointed out that all the pairs of birds sat on the chimney pots around home were jackdaws. (At that distance it's hard to guess how big they are and in silhouette you don't get to see the giveaway grey heads)

there's nothing more enigmatic and honestly disturbing than being out in the desert wilderness with hardly any signs of animal life for minutes at a time and hearing or spotting a single raven usually perched in a place that has a quality of absurd obviousness to it as if it wants to communicate some kind of cosmic joke to you, and then feeling yourself being watched by it as you pass. it seems to have both an understanding of what space and placement mean in the context of the human world and an otherness to its intelligence that falls outside of it.

i saw hi to my crows daily. no gifts but we cool

Same! A pair of crows has been living on top of our office building for a couple of years, directly above me it turns out. They hop around the parking lot most of the day (we're next to a supermarket, plenty of food to be found on the ground). They'll get out of the way when a car approaches or take the high road esp when esp kids walk by, but they're completely cool with me. We'll exchange glances in a 'howdy neighbour' kind of way. It's one of those small daily pleasures tbh

I caw back at my local crows when I hear them cawing. I hope they know that means I think they're cool. I want to start throwing them peanuts or something, but am concerned about what might happen if I decided to stop.

jackdaw is an alltime great bird name

crows are good, I love them

In Canberra visiting my brother, a small grey butcher bird came and sat on the chair beside me for a few minutes at eye level. I wasn’t sure if it was interested by me or deciding whether to take my eye out. Magic experience. It flew a short way away into a tree and I cut a scrap of steak for it, which it caught off the bounce.