It’s not often that you see a raven’s nest in western Pennsylvania.
This spring Tim Vechter has been watching a family of ravens near Greensburg. He took their picture through his scope last week when the four young birds were just about to fledge. By now they’ve probably left the nest.
I wish I could have been there to see them fly.
(photo by Tim Vechter)
The young Raven were off the nest Sunday, May 8, and perched in nearby trees, with parent(s) nearby.
How do you tell the difference between a raven and a crow? We came home one day and a large black bird was sunning itself on the sloped section of the roof in the front of our house….it had its wings spread out, and it looked bigger than a crow to me. It got up and flew off when we pulled into the driveway. I thought it might have been a raven, although we do have a lot of crows around our house.
Mary Ann
Ravens are much bigger than crows — even bigger than some hawks! (Ravens are 25″ from beak to tail, crows are 19″.) Ravens tend to soar; Crows flap. Ravens have relatively long tails that end in a wedge shape. Crows’ tails are only slightly rounded at the end, not pointed in a wedge. Ravens’ voices are a gutteral deep “Brock!” (and many other vocalizations). Crows caw.
There are more differences but, yes, they are hard to tell apart.
I have a pair of ravens who nest somewhere near me and are here year-round. I notice them mostly by hearing their call. Like Kate says, crows caw.
Go here to listen to a raven’s call: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/sounds
You are so lucky, Marianne! I love ravens but there is only one nest .. maybe 2 .. anywhere near the city. Ravens are rare in town.
The ravens at Crooked Creek have nested successfully this year also. I do not know how many as I was underneath the dam structure on Monday trying to get a photo of the nest (did, but not good enough to see what if anything still in it) and 3 (probably parents and a young maybe recently fledged) were zooming around me and honking/squawking loudly, so I left before I stressed them out any further…intend to return tomorrow to check it out again. They are interesting creatures!