Caw: Crow or No?
Whenever I see a large, all-black bird, it’s time for a classic birding game: Crow or No? I first saw Kaeli Swift, Ph.D. (aka @corvidresearch) hosting this game online and giving great tips on how to ID different black birds. Identifying these birds is a surprisingly hard challenge. Early on in my birding journey I was corrected by an eBird reviewer on a photo I thought was a crow but was actually a raven.
With time it becomes easier to distinguish these birds. Here are some tips to help you figure out if it is a crow or one of its relatives. I’m focusing on birds in the United States, so these tips may not work for species in other regions. Some identifiers, like body proportions, can be hard to describe but you’ll learn with repetition. One go-to feature may not be clear enough especially because age, molting patterns, and genetic mutation can cause some surprising variation. So it is helpful to combine multiple distinguishing features when making an ID.
Crow or No? Identify your local black bird
Pick one card for each question and this page will score how likely your bird is a crow, raven, or neither. Each card includes reference media from the Macaulay Library to help guide you.
Some More Tips
To expand on the quiz, here are some more details about what I look at to identify birds.
How big is it?
An American crow is larger than most songbirds like a robin. But it is smaller than most hawks. By contrast, a Common Raven can be as big as a large hawk. This can be hard to distinguish without a reference point, but side-by-side or relative to a physical object the two are usually distinguishable. This size difference is also more significant in the Western United States, where the crows tend to be smaller.
How big is the bill?
An American Crow’s bill is relatively thick for a bird, but eventually tapers down to a point. The Common Raven’s bill is thicker relative to its body, often has more feathers covering it, and does not taper until close to the tip. At first, this looks really subtle, but eventually, you’ll start to notice.
What shape is the tail?
If the bird is flying, try to look for the tail shape. American Crows’ tail feathers are more even in length which gives their tail a more square look when closed or an even fan look when spread out. By contrast, a Common Raven has longer feathers near the center of the tail. This can make their tail look almost diamond shaped. It still fans out when spread wide, but the middle should be notably longer than the sides.
A word of caution, this is easy to mess up and different tail positions can be misleading. If a raven’s tail is completely spread out, it can be hard to notice the diamond shape. Sometimes the edges of a crow’s tail can make it look diamond shaped. This is why it’s best to combine a few marks to make an identification.
Are they ganging up on a larger bird?
If a lot of black birds are all chasing after a hawk, they may be crows. Many species of birds like mockingbirds or even small sparrows do this, especially during breeding season to protect their young. Some smaller blackbirds, like Red-winged Blackbirds are also very protective of their territory, particularly when nesting. But crows are well known for grouping up to chase off a hawk in a behavior called “mobbing”. Crows will also mob ravens so if there is a size difference between the two black birds, you might have both.
How many are there?
This is a weak clue, since crows and ravens can both be in large or small groups. But ravens tend to either be alone or in pairs. By contrast, crows frequently form large flocks. Again, this isn’t always consistent. Crows spend lots of time on their own, and I’ve seen flocks of ravens with as many as 30 individuals, but this clue can still help inform an ID.
Where are you?
While crows and ravens are widespread in the United States, there are fewer ravens in the central U.S. states. Ravens tend to cover more ground or live in more remote areas than American Crows, though both are known to take advantage of various human handouts. Location is also key for the two other crows/ravens you might encounter in the United States.
What sound is it making?
Birds won’t always identify themselves, but making sounds is the closest thing to it for corvids. This is one of the easiest ways to ID a bird because it works from a distance even if you don’t have a view in your binoculars. Crows are known for their “caw”. Raven calls tend to be much lower and grovelly. Note that both species can make a variety of sounds like pops or a low frequency grumble. They have also been known to imitate other sounds, though not as frequently as parrots or mockingbirds do. Crows tend to be noticeably higher pitched than ravens, but still low pitched, more like a cough than a song.
Bonus Round
Okay, so you’re pretty sure it is either a crow or raven. Now let’s make things more complicated! Are you sure what kind of crow/raven?
American Crow or Fish Crow?
In the Eastern United States, there’s another tricky identification challenge. This time it’s still a crow! The Fish Crow looks very similar to an American Crow. There are very slight differences in size and their wings. Fish crows also tend to live closer to water. But the easiest way to distinguish them, just like with ravens, is by their “caw”! Fish crows sound more nasally, almost like a squeaker dog toy. An American Crow will sound more like a full-throated “caw”.
All About Birds: Fish Crow vs American Crow
Common Raven or Chihuahuan Raven?
In parts of southern Arizona, southern or eastern New Mexico, western Texas, and even parts of southeastern Colorado, another raven, the Chihuahuan Raven, can be found. It’s typically found in lower elevations around dry, open land. They are slightly smaller than Common Ravens and the base of their feathers is white rather than gray. Their nasal bristles are typically longer compared to the Common Raven, and their voice higher but still lower than a crow.
All About Birds: Chihuahuan Raven vs Common Raven
Other Black Birds
There are several other black birds found commonly in North America.
The Blackbird Family
Outside of the corvid family, the most significant group of birds in the United States with several all-black species is aptly namely the blackbirds. A key distinction here is that members of the blackbird family are significantly smaller than crows and ravens. If you look closely and have favorable lighting, you may also find the bird is not entirely black, either in the eye, or a more purple color to the feathers. The females are also usually more brown than black, so if a group is 50/50% black and brown, they are probably blackbirds.
Some notable birds in this family include:
Despite the name, some members of the blackbird family can be quite colorful. In fact, New World Orioles are also members of the New World Blackbird family known by its Latin name, Icteridae.
Cormorants
One family of birds that is large like a raven, but definitely not a crow, is the cormorants. Cormorants have long necks, and rapid, shallow wingbeats. Their diet is almost entirely fish and they spend most of their time in or around the water. When they are still, their long necks will likely tell you, not a crow. If they are flying, their wingbeats are much faster than a crow or raven and they tend to travel in a very straight line.
The Double-crested Cormorant is the most widespread in the US, often appearing near inland lakes and rivers. On the west coast other cormorants like Pelagic and Brandt’s Cormorant are common. You can easily find a colony of nest Brandt’s cormorants on the cliffs in La Jolla, San Diego during the right time of the year.
Vultures
Vultures are most often seen in flight and can at a glance look like ravens. However vultures have much larger wings and their head looks proportionally tiny. Plus their wings usually have some lighter sections. For Turkey Vultures, the trailing side of the wing often looks almost gray and their (relatively small) head is red. For Black Vultures, the “finger” features on the ends of the wings will usually show some white.
Starlings
The European Starling was introduced from Europe and is now well established across North America. They are much smaller than crows and their feathers can have spots and an iridescent, almost rainbow hue in the right light. Outside of breeding season, their plumage becomes duller and their spots more noticeable. But sometimes they just look like black birds.
They have color on their bill and legs which corvids like crows and ravens normally do not have. Their wings are short and quickly come to a point so in flight their wings look like little triangles. They are better imitators than the corvids and make a variety of sounds including some metallic noises.
To learn more about identifying crows and ravens, check out these resources:
- Are you playing #CrowOrNo yet? | Corvid Research A post by Kaeli Swift, Ph.D. who is an Ornithologist and a partial inspiration for this game.
- How to Tell Crows and Ravens Apart by Sight and Sound | All About Birds
This page was inspired by FractalKitty and others. Many thanks to the Macaulay Library and those who contributed the embedded media. Thanks to the Kaeli Swift, Ph. D for sharing lots of great corvid facts on the CrowOrNo hashtag.