A strange chicken this and it seemed to be that he had an urgent message for me this morning.
He flipped up into the sky and turned right above me. Was it perhaps a Cape Black Crow? Cannot be as I saw a white spot behind his head. Black Crows have no white spots.
Landed on the pipe of a road lamp and oh yes, it was a Raven and he smiled at me.
A "White-necked Raven" (Corvus albicallis) and he certainly made sure that I heard his message.
He said that I should take heart, as a nice surprise was waiting for us this morning.
Now a Raven should not be confused with our resident Pied Crows.
Here is a couple of "Pied Crows" (Corvus albus) later in the afternoon and they were hiding behind the wall from the strong wind that suddenly came over.
An hour later they were still there and by this time the wind was even stronger. They knew that a storm was coming.
Finally, the Pied Crows were correct, as the first heavy storm clouds started rolling in across the late sunset.
Okay, so now you want to know what the surprise message of the Raven was? For that you will have to wait for my post tomorrow and I am sure that you are also going to be surprised.
Regarding the differences between a Raven and Crow, You can see that a Raven has a thicker beak. Also a shorter tail that is wider than a crow's in flight. My main trick to identify raptor birds in flight, is the shape of their tails.
And That's All Friends.
Note: I do the bird specie identifications by using our "BIRDS of Southern Africa" book. 488 pages of its 5th Revised Edition that is a trove of information about most of our birds in the country. Sponsored by SASOL.
The book also has a FREE Barcode Scan for Bird Calls next to every bird picture.
ISBN 978-1-77584-668-0
All photos are my own and taken with a Canon Powershot SX60HS Bridge camera.
We hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and the story.
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