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Originally Posted by Crowbob
The experts at UoM are always quite sure of themselves, kach. Especially when they're wrong.
BTW, I think that bird on the barn in your other thread is an Arctic Raven. A 60' wingspan, though outside typical, is not unusual. My immediate impulse when I looked at your pics was 'Crow', of course.
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Is the Common Raven same as the Arctic Raven?
Similar Species
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/id
Quote:
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Common Ravens are considerably larger than American and Northwestern crows, although this difference can be hard to judge on its own if you don't look at size and shape. Look for the Common Raven's heftier bill, shaggy throat feathers, more slender, pointed wings, and longer, wedge-shaped tail.
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Well, that answers the giant crow mystery. Yes, they had 4-5 foot wingspans - scary at first as you drive towards them right on the side of the road - close.
The other bird on the barn roof was older than time, something ugly in the vulture family.
I've seen 100's of turkey vultures over the years, and up close too. This thing was like the grand daddy of them all, in it's own class.
Perhaps it got a hold of some growth steroids in some farmer's feed back when it unregulated and the young bird was in it's growth period. This could be a man-made freak never to be duplicated in the Northern Hemisphere.
I can see this bird pushing cows aside to eat their feed. I can also imagine it clearing out an entire chicken coop for a hearty meal.