“Do you still feed the ravens?”
“Crows.”
I do! I started feeding crows during the pandemic and haven’t stopped. Corvids, such as crows (kraaien), ravens (raven), magpies (eksters), jays (gaaien), rooks (roeken) and jackdaws (kauwtjes) are often stacked onto one big pile, the one labeled Loudmouth (they are not wrong).
Sometimes even a blackbird or a starling gets added to the mix. This offends them greatly. They don’t belong to the Corvid family and besides, they consider themselves to be the better singers. Corvids, however hoarse and croaky, are songbirds. They perch. They are the Tom Waitses to their Beyonce, and this is exactly why I like them. They get mixed up a lot, so I’m going to give a few descriptions so you can keep them apart. Take note: I am not burdened by any official background in biology, though my interest in animals goes back a long long time.
What you should ask yourself when you see a corvid, is this: Are they black? No? Are they colourful, yes? The colourful ones are quite straightforward:
Jay
Jay (gaai):
Loud. LOUD! Loud as fuck.
Usually hangs in gangs of 3
Likes to snatch baby birds
Taupe colored with a beautiful blue bit at the wing.
Bit of a dick to other birds. (See point 3.)
Magpie
Magpie (ekster):
Does he look like a jazz singer or a waiter? Then It’s a magpie.
Black and white tux
Very long tail, a beautifully iridescent blues and greens.
Also often hangs in gangs of 3.
Also loud LOUD LOUD, always bickering with his pals.
We’re moving on to the black(ish) corvids, who are sometimes trickier to tell apart. I’ll go about them from smallest to largest.
Jackdaw
Jackdaw (kauw)
The smallest of the Corvid bunch.
Grey, with a black yarmulke/keppeltje on his forehead. This headwear, or forehead-wear, rather, is very distinct.
Bright, bright blue eyes, Frank Sinatra eat your heart out
Usually resides in quite big packs.
The most urban of them all, not very afraid of humans.
Loud but chirpy.
Crow
Crow (kraai)
Smaller than a raven, bigger than a jackdaw.
Completely black
Hangs with his family, and when it gets colder starts roosting with the other crows in big groups (so called murders).
80% of the time, when you see a black Corvid, it’s a crow.
They are everywhere, in parks, in the city, in the fields.
They are usually a bit more scared of humans than Jackdaws
Only the young have blue eyes, adults have dark eyes.
LOUD!
Wedge shaped tail in flight
Cannot fly upside down
Caws
Straight beak
Rook
Rook (Roek):
Bigger than a jackdaw and a crow, smaller than a raven
Looks like an undertaker
Face reminds you of more of a plague mask than the others
Very goth. Very pale kind of edged beak and face
Tends to roost in giant groups
LOUD!
Raven
Raven (raaf):
HUGE.
Is it a beak with a bird, it’s a raven, if it’s a bird with a beak, it’s most likely a crow.
Very big
Extremely big.
Diamond shaped tail in flight
Can fly upside down
Croaks
What a unit!
Shaggy throat feathers
Slight point to beak with a mustache on top of his nose
The starling (those little speckled iridescent fellows who can sound like R2D2 and fly in giant murmurations) and the blackbird (black Grammy winning songster with a yellow beak) are NOT corvids.
Hope this helps a bit!
XOXO
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