Large-billed Crow or Carrion Crow
seeing 10s of new Japanese crow photos a week at inat makes me understand that I know less than I think I do.
I thought i had it sort of figured out with this pair but...sometimes it is hard.
Sure the obvious birds are just that obvious...other than that..
In the field ID is often straightforward. Birds call differently, behaviour can be viewed. This post deals solely with ID from photos, which more often than not seems to be surprisingly hard.
Comparison sites I could find are focused mainly on the obvious differences.
I hope to collect some info here
Carrion Crow Large-billed Crow
ハシボソガラス ハシブトガラス
questions I ask myself:
The curve in the upper mandible could be something to work with
Is the feathering of the saddle an indication?
Tail-width and length seem to be greater with LbC but is it a fact?
What other features could help?
big bill? large tail? This appears to be a Carrion Crow anyway
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/82613508
(the saddle may be a feature)
Comments
silly thing maybe but look at the feathering of the saddle of both Carrion and Large-billed Crow...is there a pattern visible or would that be idiotic: LbC seems to have a pointed saddle (bald on top of bill) where Carrion has a straight edged saddle...Not sure if it is something
Hey! I was just searching how to identify this pair out of curiosity and came across this post. I'm curious if you've noticed a pattern in leg length; my impression from looking through eBird photos of the 2 species is that Carrion seems to have longer legs? I don't see it mentioned in comparisons of the species though.
I have never looked at leg length to be honest, but you might be on to something. I will have a look at it although of course it is often a difficult thing to measure; young birds give the most ID problems, I think they too may appear to have long legs as they may be a tad thinner and/or the overall feathering on the belly may be less abundant and leaving a larger part of the leg visible....just some thoughts
thanks for giving it some thought...hope to hear more from you in the near future : )
cheers,
Gerben
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