Such a Thing As a GIANT Crow!?!?!

[snowydiamonds]

I've had ravens steal 2 of my half grown cornishX meat birds last summer. I sent one of my weimaraners to retrieve/take it away from the raven so I'd definately be careful once you put your birds outside. Ravens are smart and I let the ones around my pens and at my cabin know they are NOT welcome. The parents teach their young ones once they are flying that my cabin is off limits to their young but they still sit on the neighbor's cabin roof and talk about me, like family story time I agree with them and remind them, too! The full grown ones can sound like a person thumping around on a roof very loudly! We have a ton of them here.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

I agree with the others, I've seen ravens hunting smaller song birds and even saw one with what looked to be a freshly killed squirrel, although they pay no attention to my pullets. They are very smart birds too....my older cousin had a pet raven several years back that he bought from a breeder for a few thousand. He had an aviary for it and it was an amazing pet....I'd rather have one than a macaw, even though it is drab looking. It's not the american raven though, which is illegal.

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
yes, Snowydiamonds, it really sounded like a full grown person jumping onto my porch! It scared the crap out of me. I told my friend this and he thought I was exaggerating. I was like, "No, I'm serious, it sounded loud and heavy!" As I said earlier, I'm shocked. I had no idea there was such a size difference between a Raven and a Crow.

By the way, I have all Bantams, so I need to be extra careful I guess!

 

[b.hromada]

Quote:
That would be my guess.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

A few years back when my friend and I were taking a trip up to the upper pennisula of Michigan, we thought we were close enough to the Canada border that we should go take a look. Well, 4 hours later we WERE in Canada, but on the road up there I got the privilege of seeing a black bear, a turkey that crossed the road in front of us (and left me to say about a billion annoying, bad jokes the rest of the the way up there), and several ravens. I knew immediately that they were not crows due to the sheer size of them. They were enormous! And yes, they are VERY black. I felt honors to see animals in the wild where they belonged as opposed to in a zoo. Oh, and we were driving through a very long stretch of woods when we saw them. They were um, enjoying some roadkill.

I believe the roadkill that we kept seeing everywhere was porcupines. Was quite an educational trip for both of us!

 

[Dogfish]

Turkey Vulture or raven.

 

[sparkles2307]

Probably a Raven, but might be a condor or vulture....depending on where you live, which I failed to look at before posting!

 

[PhilErvin]

Here in California where I live we have a ton of Ravens always hanging around. They do raid the other birds nests and carry off the young chicks. In the desert here they are wipeing out the tortoise population. They flip the young tortoise over and eat them.

 

[Laurajean]

This was definitely not a vulture. I've seen those before, and this was not one. I am sold on the Raven theory at this point. It looked exactly like a huge crow only bigger, blacker and more "pointy or angled", if that makes any sense. I've since looked up Raven pics online and Bingo! Just never realized there such a size difference between a Raven and a Crow. If I weren't worried about my trash and my chickens, I'd say he was kinda cool! So big, and I was about 5 feet from him.

 

[wisdomseeker]

Yes I have seen it too a gigantic crow under 4 feet tall looks exactly like a crow, I saw it from 10 feet away my brother and I ran away as we saw it my family also got out of the house shocked when they saw it. looking at its claws and size it could definately carry a kid under 150 pounds, I was in Islamabad, Pakistan in early 1990's. family still talk about that gigantic even now. Very horrific moment, I will never forget.