Crow or Raven? Look at the Tail, Not the Size

A raven is much larger than a crow, and that fact is almost useless in the field. A bird alone against an empty sky has nothing to be compared with, and both look big.

Three characters work at a distance. None of them is size.

The tail

Fan out the tail in flight and look at the trailing edge.

• Crow — the tail fans into a rounded or squared end. All the feathers are roughly the same length.
• Raven — the tail comes to a point, forming a wedge or a diamond. The central feathers are longer.

This is the one to learn. It works on a silhouette, at distance, in poor light.

The flight

Crows flap. Steady, even, unhurried wingbeats, and they keep doing it. A crow soaring for any length of time is unusual.

Ravens soar. They ride thermals on flat wings, glide for long distances, and roll and tumble in display. A large black bird soaring over a ridge is a raven far more often than a crow.

The voice

Crow — a clean, evenly pitched caw, repeated.

Raven — a deep, resonant, hollow gronk, and a range of knocking and bell-like notes. It sounds like it comes from a much bigger animal, which it does.

Nobody who has heard both confuses them.

In the hand or close up

The shaggy throat feathers are the best close-range character. A raven calling with its head forward shows a distinct beard.

Where each one is

Historically this settled it, and it no longer does.

Ravens were birds of wilderness — mountains, forests, coasts, deserts — and crows were birds of farmland and towns. Over the last few decades ravens have expanded into towns and cities across much of the west and are increasingly seen in the northeast, so range is now a weak hint rather than an answer.

If you are in the middle of a large eastern city, a crow is far more likely. Anywhere else, check the tail.

The other large black bird

Common grackle gets called a crow constantly and is much smaller, with a long keel-shaped tail, a pale yellow eye and obvious iridescence. The yellow eye is visible at a surprising distance and no corvid has it.

Turkey vulture is dark, large and soaring, and it is separated from a raven the moment you look at the wings: a vulture holds them in a shallow V and rocks constantly, while a raven soars flat and steady. The vulture's head also looks far too small for its body.

The fish crow

In the southeast there is a third option, and it is genuinely difficult by sight — the fish crow is slightly smaller than an American crow and otherwise near-identical.

The voice settles it: a nasal, short, two-note uh-uh, quite unlike the clear caw. The birding convention is that if you ask an American crow whether it is a fish crow, it says uh-uh.

Where the two overlap and the bird stays silent, most experienced observers leave it unidentified — which is a legitimate outcome and a better one than guessing. The same principle runs through starting with the bill rather than the colour: use the characters that are actually reliable, and stop when they run out.