birding-aus
Alan Morris wrote answering the enquiry about Little Ravens in Sydney.
I'm sure those comments are correct but I'd like to amplify them a bit. The
Little Raven is (or certainly was) the common corvid in urban Melbourne (so
they rather more than "extend" into Melbourne). At least in the late 1970s,
big flocks of them used to roost around Austin Hospital and La Trobe
University.
The Australian Raven also occurs in Melbourne but nowhere near as many. By
my very one sided informal observations, in my four years at La Trobe
University, my only record of the Australian Raven was one pair once.
Although of course I would have missed others.
As for Canberra, the Australian Raven is the common urban species and
occupies city parks and streets, indeed I had a pair that had three nestings
in the eucalypt in my quite ordinary suburban yard in 1996 & 1997 and
another somewhere nearby in 1998. Maybe strangely, the Little Raven is not
an urban bird around Canberra. It does occur, usually in large flocks on the
fringes of Canberra: the grasslands and woodlands. There are also many
records of birds flying over the suburbs and they go to the high country to
feed on Bogong moths. However to the best of my knowledge of 15 years living
here and running the Garden Bird Survey for several years, the Little Raven
is very much marginal in suburban Canberra, even though at nearby Cooma and
high country they occupy the high people areas.
It seems that most places (or at least urban places) only support one common
corvid species. Around NW NSW such as Sturt National Park, it is interesting
to see and hear the biggest and smallest species (Aust Raven & Little Crow)
together.
-----Original Message-----
From: morris <>
To: Ian Montgomery <>;
<>
Date: Monday, 8 February 1999 12:08
Subject: birding-aus Little Ravens in Sydney?
>birding-aus
>
>Ian Montgomery wrote
>
>
>> Do Little Ravens occur in Sydney? I heard, but didn't see, some Corvids
>> yesterday evening where I live in Balmain, inner suburbs, which didn't
>> sound at all like Australian Ravens - short "kark" rather than wailing,
>> descending call.
>>
>
>Ian,
>
>> There are no records yet for Little Ravens in urban Sydney although they
do
>> occasionally occur in far western Sydney on the Cumberland Plain. That is
>> not to say that they could not extend to urban Sydney as they have done
in
>> Melbourne and Canberra. However as you did not see the bird and as there
are
>> plenty of young Australian Ravens around at present making many odd
calls, I
>> am inclined to say that you may have been mistaken.
>
>Alan Morris
>Records Officer NSWFOC
>
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