I had a brief visit to Kambah Pool on Saturday, whilst there, a flock of Ravens flew high over, going south. Count estimate was close to 200 of them. On calls
(not a lot of that) I believe they were Little Ravens. I focussed watching on only the bird at the end of the flock. It appeared to be panting hard, with the exertion and the heat.
Philip
From: Martin Butterfield [
Sent: Monday, 14 January, 2019 10:18 AM
To: Lia Battisson
Cc: Philip Veerman; Ryu Callaway; COG Chat
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Raven flocking
This causes me to recall some comments from a coast group some years ago. Received wisdom was that there were no Little Ravens at the coast. Then a fair sized flock were seen making Little Raven
calls So the default was to record big flocks as Little and groups less about 5 as Australian. Then someone saw a flock of about 30 all giving Australian calls. So shortcuts were ruled out and clear evidence was necessary to ID below Corvid spuh.
On Mon, 14 Jan 2019 at 09:13, Lia Battisson <> wrote:
Ryu,
I have counted 43 Australian Ravens in Tuggeranong Park one morning some time ago.
Regards
Lia
> On 13 Jan 2019, at 23:07, Philip Veerman <> wrote:
>
> The calls of young Australian Ravens are different from adults. I don't know if the same is true of Little Ravens (probably is). That could be confusing but your ID is still probably right. If so, that is a particularly large gathering of Australian Ravens.
But young birds starting to become independent especially if there is some good food around can be expected to form flocks.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ryu Callaway [
> Sent: Sunday, 13 January, 2019 10:48 PM
> To: COG Chat
> Subject: [canberrabirds] Raven flocking
>
> This afternoon I went for a walk over Wanniassa Hills and through Fadden after the cool change came through. At one of the higher points of the reserve, I encountered a group of just over 15 Ravens. Only Australian Raven calls were detected. I got a look
at a number, which we all young birds - not helpful for ID. Nonetheless, I could not detect any obvious Little Raven calls.
>
> I continued on my merry way, and coming back through Fadden, I estimated about 80 Ravens - a group of just under 20 in the valley right near me, another group of 15-20 over open woodland in west Wanniassa Hills, and the remainder, a large group of 40+ over
the more wooded eastern section of Wanniassa Hills which I'd just walked. They were all rather noisy and calls could be heard from all 3 groups - again, plenty of definite Australian Raven calls, but not one call that I could say was a Little Raven. The flock
in the valley landed in a tree near me - and of the flock, I could see only one that had white eyes, suggesting the rest were all young birds.
>
> My understanding is that Little Raven is the flocking species in our region, whereas Australian Ravens tend to be in small groups. My question: Is it normal to see large flocks of young Australian Ravens at this time of year?Perhaps young Australian Ravens
behave differently?
>
> I have found a Qld Gov page that refers to the formation of large roosting groups of young/unpaired birds. This is about crows/ravens in general and not Aus Raven specific.
>
> Ryu
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