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| Common Raven, Mission Hills Regional Park, San Diego, California, October 4, 2013. Photo by Greg Gillson. |
I have also noted that the ravens in San Diego are obviously smaller than birds in the Pacific Northwest, less wary (downright friendly), and have a higher voice. The call is rough, but not nearly as deep or raspy and croaking as ravens elsewhere. In other words, ravens are more similar to crows in the SW than elsewhere in North America. Ravens are told apart from crows by the raven's wedged tail, heavier bill, deeper raspy voice, and more hawk-like flight style. See this ID and range information from eBird.
I love your blog, and have read so many of your articles and really appreciate all the information you provide about our local birds! And as for the raven v. crow issue here, I have noticed this to a frustrating degree. The ravens here are smaller, their beaks smaller, their nasal bristles not as long and thick, many have less obvious beards, so basically their physical characteristics are not the best for differentiating, and if that wasn't bad enough, then their calls also sound more similar to crows, and a lot of the crows here are also big and also have more raven-like physical traits that may otherwise be atypical of most people's belief of what crows should look like (although maybe they're ravens too-in SD it's anybody's guess). Not only that, but I live downtown and I have lots of both species around, and I also count birds for eBird, and they don't want us to put down the wrong thing for them, and although I know lots about ravens and crows and have read every guide, looked at hundreds if not thousands of photos and watch video documentaries about them, I feel like half the time I have no idea what they are, even when I have photos, and even sometimes sounds. It seems like everybody wants to say it's a crow if it doesn't perfectly match the big vulture-like male common raven with it's enormous curvy beak, with a deep gronky call, but because I know we have these sort of smaller less pronounced typical raven trait ravens here, I feel like I have to be much more careful and ID'ing the SD ravens is much more challenging. If you see them in flight, it's easy, you can see their diamond-shaped tails, but I rarely see them soaring in the sky, and then watch them come land to a building roof top, which is where I run into the ID'ing problems. I'll take as many photos as I can at multiple angles, and be studying them for hours afterwards and still be like, "What are you?!" It is so frustrating, it just seems like our San Diego ravens just love to keep us guessing. I don't know how many I have put down as crow/raven sp., but I have a feeling they will probably stay in that ambiguous category forever.
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