Hi Bob,
Well your Baza record certainly created some
interest and I am glad that you will be fully documenting it. However,
what caught my attention was the reference to Torresian Crow at
Tibooburra. The two corvid species present in the area are the Australian
Raven and Little Crow. In the 1970's when attempting to catch and band
Black Kites at the Tibooburra tip we caught and banded some crows. We had
the first Slater's field guide (in two parts) and carefully checked the
distribution maps, descriptions (especially the inter-ramal area) etc. and
concluded that they were Torresian Crows. Someone in Birding NSW alerted
us to the possible mix-up and we were referred to Ian Rowley, who had carried
out research for CSIRO on the corvids. He was away but Graeme Chapman
responded and sent me a copy of the relevant paper. He also examined some
slides that we had taken. It turns out that we were too far south for the
crows to be Torresian Crows and accepted that we had, in fact, banded Little
Crows. I would suggest that your birds were Little Crows unless you have
some strong evidence to the contrary. Corvids are difficult to identify
but are greatly under-rated birds as they are both beautiful and
intelligent.
I hope these comments have been
helpful.
Regards
Greg
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