Is your profile picture a crow, a raven, or neither? I can never distinguish these two.

6 years ago
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There is no consistent distinction between these two. That might be the cause :)
They are both the same family, Corvus.

6 years ago
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Okay... Both of them are majestic and elegant. XD

6 years ago
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True that, but this seems to be a raven (see below)

6 years ago
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Well, judging by the beak, where the feathers go over the beak slightly, it is a raven.
Other than size, there are indeed only a small number of distinctive features.
Besides google reverse image search recognizes it as "mechanical raven" (but then in Russian)

6 years ago
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Yeah, it has some "mechanical" features and textures, because it's an artistic rendition (not by me, though) and not meant to be lifelike :)

I'm no ornithologist, but that's what I've learned a pretty long time ago, that you can't really tell them apart reliably.
For example, you can find ravens across the whole northern hemisphere basically, and that alone accounts for some phenotypical differences and the division into subspecies etc..

Here's a short list, one of the first things I've found, just for the common raven, if you want to read more :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_raven#Classification

6 years ago*
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I am not an orinthologist either, but I do work in a zoo, and had to learn about Ravens, among other animals.
Besides that, I've always admired the crow family (corvus). But, I stand corrected:

I've always learned, that besides size and call, you could see it from the tuft of hair an the beak along with the beak being a bit more. For a reference also see: https://www.diffen.com/difference/Crow_vs_Raven or else http://www.audubon.org/news/how-tell-raven-crow
However, when looking at all the different crow species on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow I saw that a lot of them actually have tufted beaks.

And, I just found the original artist, and he says it's a rendition of a crow, so it is a crow: https://renecampbellart.deviantart.com/art/Deviser-330154799

6 years ago
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Yeah, not always that simple, crazy how nature do dat.

But you're right about size, that is a good indicator. But also useless without any sense of scale or if you can't measure a thing.

And, I just found the original artist, and he says it's a rendition of a crow, so it is a crow:

LOL, okay. I had no idea where it was from. If the artist says it's a crow, then it's a crow. You win.

6 years ago
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