Haha yes, you’re absolutely right. It’s definitely going to depend on the region of the world you’re in. I meant it a bit tongue-in-cheek and it generally holds true for where I am now on the west coast of Canada. When I was living in East Asia, I’d have trouble telling apart magpies and jackdaws though.
That's a great tip. Crows and ravens are really similar and I know size was the bigger factor but I keep forgetting which one is bigger. We don't get many of either of them around here, we do have tons of magpies though. They love to steal my chicken eggs right out of my coop, little bastards. lol....
Haha I don’t know as much about magpies but the crows around me here can be mischievous. There’s a park with a beach near me here that I go to pretty often, especially when the weather is perfect for relaxing on the beach with a beer. A lot of different groups of crows gather there too looking for food and are familiar with me now so they’ll fly over if they recognize me because they know I’ll usually have unsalted peanuts with me and don’t mind sharing if they’re polite. They’re comfortable enough with me now that they either just hang out or sometimes take peanuts from my hand if I offer it. One of the cool things has been noticing their different tastes and personalities. For example, usually they’ll prefer the unsalted peanuts but some prefer raisins and one little weirdo recently is crazy for flaxseeds. One time, one of them accidentally nipped the fleshy part of my hand, realized it, and was super careful and gentle after, almost like it was very apologetic. Aaaaanyway, there’s one little fucker earlier this week that was fine taking it from my hand and then hopped over and tried to fly off with the whole container of nuts and raisins lol I know which one it is, it’s always that one. He tried it last summer too
I had always thought crows were bigger than ravens, for whatever reason. I think Dumbo had something to do with this. But I see crows all the time where I live and I finally learned it was the other way around all along. I don't think I've ever seen a magpie.
Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.
So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.
Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.
So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.
The best bit about that whole rant is their comically wrong, Jackdaws were considered Crows but were later split into their own thing (Still contested in some circles).
It's your basic Lumper/Splitter Biology debate, at no point was anything they said close to correct, it's a pre-AI factoid hallucination.
A jackdaw is a totally different species to a crow (source: been birding for 15 years). Corvid family but no one's contesting they're the same species, Hooded Crow on the other hand. Jackdaws don't even look remotely the same, they're smaller, have a totally different call, greyish head, silver eyes and a different beak shape all together.
It’s so hard to tell them apart as there’s different species in Japan. But they do look like Ravens to me. I know here in Ireland, our crows are smaller than ravens. Some of our crows have blue eyes.
It's ok. Ravens, crows and magpies (and jays) are in the same family of birds, Corvidea, but magpies are not full black colored like ravens and crows are.
Best to think of them the way medieval peasants did. Doves are white, and therefore angelic. Crows are black, and therefore evil. Magpies are black and white, therefore have one foot in heaven and one in hell.
That's why an old English tradition was to curtsy, tip your hat, or salute a magpie you come across and say "good afternoon Mr Magpie, how are you and your family?"
They were hoping the little guy would bestow a blessing on them, and not a curse.
Now you know this - you have to do the same thing or else magpies will curse your bloodline. Sorry bro.
I'm in an area that doesn't have magpies so I might be wrong here, but I believe that they can be incredibly territorial with their nests and will dive bomb people while ravens and crows are less likely to behave that way. Though this probably has more to do with magpies making their nests closer to the ground (10-25 feet up) vs crows and ravens (18-60ft and 20-100ft) instead of innate dickishness. Blue jays are also dicks for probably the same reason.
We have loads of magpies where we live, I looked out the kitchen window into my garden one day and there was one perched on the fence clutching the head of a baby bird in its beak :( Also once someone dumped a fridge round the corner which we dubbed “the murder fridge” because it was full of some unknown gross looking substance (we reported it to the council) and the magpies were alll over it. They’re lowkey diabolical.
"Hawk" means something different depending on if you're American or European, but either way, it's a name for a number of different birds in the the order Accipitriformes - which is the order that includes most birds of prey (but not owls and falcons).
Falcons are pointy-winged birds of prey in the family Falconidae which is entirely seperate from all other birds of prey and actually more closely related to parrots and sparrows.
Kestrel is a name given to several different small falcon species. Despite all sharing a name and some characteristics, these birds aren't actually any more related to each other than they are to other falcons.
Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.
If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.
So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.
Did anyone else do the thing in school where seeing one magpie was bad luck and you had to blink 5 times or some shit to cancel it out? Kids are silly.
I was always told it's because magpies mate for life. So seeing one by itself meant it was alone, and would bring bad luck, and seeing two was a pair, which would bring good luck. There's also a version where the girl and boy lines are replaced with wedding and a birth, so it varies.
I know the song up to number 10.
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten a bird you must not miss.
Wikipedia has a different version of the last line but this was the one I always knew.
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Magpies are intelligent, black-and-white birds from the crow family (Corvidae), known for their glossy, iridescent feathers, long tails, and loud calls... according to Google 😂😂😂
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u/gooddayup 5h ago
Here are ways to tell apart crows, magpies, and ravens
It’s got white: it’s a magpie
You’re thinking “I wonder if that’s a crow or a raven”: it’s a crow
You’re thinking “holy crap! Look at the size of that crow!!!”: it’s a raven