I had a flock of 26 flying high over my home on the GBS Week 4 (22 to 28 January). This: high flying flocks over our area is a regular practice for them. At
that height best and probably only identifiable by calls. In our area Aust Ravens don’t do that (or hardly if at all).
Philip
From The GBS Report:
Little Raven
Corvus mellori
This species was only recognised as specifically separate from the Australian Raven in 1967. It is quite
difficult to distinguish if seen briefly and not accompanied by detecting the difference in their calls. Even so
the species is clearly marginal in Canberra, occurring in the outskirts, open fields, etc.
It is usually recorded
as large flocks flying over, with mean group size of 17.03.
This may be significantly understated from its true
value. Of the 218 observations recorded as this species, there was a surprisingly high 122 observations that
were of less than 8 individuals. This raises a suspicion that some of these may have actually been
misidentified Australian Ravens, which typically occur individually or in small groups.
There were 37
observations of 30 or more birds, which is characteristic of this species.
As the Little Raven has far fewer
records than the Australian Raven (104 to 1220), a few errors have a far greater effect on their statistics. The
available evidence indicates a very different pattern for this species.
It shows an enormous peak in January
(disproportionately contributed to by several very large flocks at several sites in Year 17)
but generally many
more in the warmer months up to April. There are many
months (especially during winter) during which it was
not observed at all. Numbers have fluctuated dramatically but appear to be increasing.
Graphs on page: 103, Rank: 91, A = 0.07212, F = 8.40%, W = 8.7, R = 0.423%, G = 17.03.
From: Denise Kay [
Sent: Friday, 28 February, 2020 2:41 PM
To: calyptorhynchus .
Cc: Canberra Birds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Little Ravens flying high over Hughes
I’m pleased to hear you say that …on Wednesday there was a flock of about 30 of what I thought were little Ravens scattering ahead of a pair of Wedge Tails over Lawson on Wednesday but this was poo pooed by a companion .
On 28 Feb 2020, at 1:43 pm, calyptorhynchus . <> wrote:
This morning about 7 I observed a flock of about 30 Little Ravens passing high over Hughes heading north.
I normally see a few such flocks each autumn, but this is earlier than usual.
--
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net
‘There is kinship between people and all animals. Such is the Law.’ Kimberley lawmen (from Yorro Yorro)
