The Raven

I've often wondered what the difference was between a raven and a crow.  I've found that crows are smaller than ravens by about 4 to 6 inches depending on the species your comparing.  I've seen either the raven or crow flying around with smaller birds chasing and diving at the large black bird.  I now believe this large black bird to be a raven because of what I saw.

While driving home yesterday I noticed a single, large black bird that I believe is a raven in the highway medium.  The bird was surrounded by 20 to 30 smaller black birds about the size of starlings or common black birds.  Maybe a better way to describe them are about a quarter the size of the raven.  I slowed my truck to see what was going on.  I saw the raven fly into the air immediately followed by the smaller birds.  Then I saw something fall from the ravens mouth.  Holy cow, it was one of those smaller birds.  It fell the 20 or so feet to the ground like a rock.  The raven dipped and flew down to where it landed, picked it up and took off again, all the while being harassed by the other birds.  The raven didn't seem to care.

I haven't witnessed this behavior in all my years.  Surprised?  I was.  Now that I've had time to think about it I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised.  Think about why the smaller birds dive and harass this large predator/scavenger?  Yep, he eats their family members.

Why do I think this bird was a raven and not a crow?  According to my bird book the raven eats small animals.  The same book does not say that about the crow. 

So I thought I would share this event with my 2 blog regulars.  Not necessarily a backyard event or frog related but still interesting.

Whoohoo