Last week my wife claimed to see a Raven in SW Austin... I told her it was probably just a crow and she was mistaken.

Today I was driving in that same area & saw what appeared to be a raven sitting on a lamp post. I pulled a U-Turn & went back for a look. Sure enough, it was. Thing looked to be about twice the size of a crow, with a thicker bill & was solitary. Unfortunately it flew away before I could get a picture.

Anyway, was wondering if any of y'all have seen these kickass birds in the Central Texas area.

Oh and... since I'm going to tell my wife she was right about seeing the raven.... is it still called eating crow?

I don't know about there but I had this debate about 10 years ago with a buddy I hunt with north of uvalde. He saw a "Raven" and I said it was a crow... a little research and pics on the deer camera made me eat my crow and confirm it was a Raven.

If you see one with 3 eyes, I'd suggest staying south. Weird creatures.

We see them every now and then around Menard.

First time I saw one I thought that had to be the biggest damn crow. Guinness book here I come...

Nevermore

Lots of ravens out where we deer hunt in Edwards Co.

Checking out iNaturalist, if you make a box from Austin to Burnet to Kerrville to SA back to Austin, there are quite a few raven sightings recorded.

Again, I dislike birds. Carry on birders

I got to go, I think I here something gently rapping

Saw them intermittently when I traveled to a former employer's facility north of Canyon Lake near Jacobs Creek.

I never thought much about the difference until now, so I went and looked it up.

saw one a few years ago in Helotes.......lived on top of my nieces school. They are huge!!

Ursus told me their meat is surprisingly delicate and pairs very well with mole rat entrails.

Based on the range maps on iBird, Ravens are common in Southern and Central Texas. In Uvalde a crow would be rare, you would probably see a raven. . It looks like the Austin area would have both in the winter.

MouthBQ98 said:

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I never thought much about the difference until now, so I went and looked it up.

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Same here. I think we have Ravens ..... three pairs that seem to stay in their three separate territories. Sometimes when they are sitting, they look almost as large as a buzzard. I always thought they were just very large crows.

But, when you look it up, one of the first things it says is that Ravens often are seen in pairs, while Crows are usually in larger groups.

Medina County

Their calls are supposed to be quite different. They do make a lot of noise but I have to look up the two sounds to see which we have here.

Edit: Just listened to Youtube..... we have Ravens!

We had them repeatedly come into our snow goose spread the other day. Not sure if they were attracted by the kite decoys or if they were just curious. Would flare when they saw the hunters below.

That's awesome!

It is pretty interesting to think about the increase in populations of birds (and animals in general) in my lifetime. (1970's to now)

White-wing doves were rare to non-existent in Central Texas, now seem to be as common as mourning doves.

Bald Eagles sighted from Houston to San Antonio.

I see Ospreys every winter now in places like Seadrift, Bastrop & Lake Austin.

3 alligators I know of were harvested legally on the Guadalupe River between Gonzales & Seguin.

Seeing Beavers on the Guadalupe was cool too.

Of course we also have the feral hog explosion and proliferation of audads, mountain lions and black panthers.

Lots of ravens here in Fredericksburg area, see them almost every day. They usually travel in pairs and it is my understanding they mate for life. They are really big birds. In 40 years I have never seen a crow around here, however. I don't think Gillespie, Kerr, Mason are part of their territory

Crow/raven range in Texas is generally an east/west of I-35 thing.

I have two pair that nest on my place in San Saba county.

ironmanag said:

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Ursus told me their meat is surprisingly delicate and pairs very well with mole rat entrails.

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Quote the Ursus never more

Yeah, except I a pretty particular about legalities.

Not to derail - but I've seen what I swear are wild parrots flying in Austin in Houston - my cursory Google search indicates they are monk parakeets? Dropping my kids off at daycare Garden Oaks area of Houston I regularly see flocks fly over and their green bodies are clearly distinguishable in the air - also have loud calls like you would expect. I guess these things are thriving in the cities...

freecashflow said:

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Not to derail - but I've seen what I swear are wild parrots flying in Austin in Houston - my cursory Google search indicates they are monk parakeets? Dropping my kids off at daycare Garden Oaks area of Houston I regularly see flocks fly over and their green bodies are clearly distinguishable in the air - also have loud calls like you would expect. I guess these things are thriving in the cities...

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I saw one of these a couple of years ago and thought it must have been someone's escaped pet.
Now I see them fairly often, usually 2-3 in a group. I'm just south of Sherman.

We have a huge flock of monks in NE Dallas. They like to build great big nests on the high-tension towers.

Can confirm those parrots in Austin, very common around Mueller area & south of downtown.

Invasives. Kill them all!

The larger Texas cities have fairly large breading populations of monk parrots, scaly-breasted munias, and other invasive birds that originally were pets and escaped or were let go.

I'm still blown away with how many collared doves I have seen expand their territory in the last 10 years. I see them in BFE uvalde county now.

I am sure there are some negative ecological impacts associated with their introduction but I really do enjoy telling game wardens I shot 16 or 17 dove and watching their reaction.

Quote:

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scaly breasted munia

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Is that in the same family as the brown breasted mattress thrasher?

freecashflow said:

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Not to derail - but I've seen what I swear are wild parrots flying in Austin in Houston - my cursory Google search indicates they are monk parakeets? Dropping my kids off at daycare Garden Oaks area of Houston I regularly see flocks fly over and their green bodies are clearly distinguishable in the air - also have loud calls like you would expect. I guess these things are thriving in the cities...

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My wife took a video on her phone of a large flock of monk parakeets picking through grass seeds around Dell Children's Hospital a few years ago. Don't know if she still has it or not.

Have a lot of Ravens in Kimble County. Sometimes groups of 5-6. Very vocal. Lot more intelligent than Crows.

Piles of ravens and crows here in western Colorado. So many ravens, they will kill a sick calf every once in a while. I actually had a federal permit to kill them for a while.

That's so raven.

I wonder if ravens and caracaras compete for the scavenger/occasional predator/omnivore niche, and that's why they are out west fulfilling all the above and we have crows and caracaras splitting the duty in south central Texas.

Any caracaras in the raven territory? Or is it just a crow vs. raven thing?

SWCBonfire said:

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I wonder if ravens and caracaras compete for the scavenger/occasional predator/omnivore niche, and that's why they are out west fulfilling all the above and we have crows and caracaras splitting the duty in south central Texas.

Any caracaras in the raven territory? Or is it just a crow vs. raven thing?

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We have both caracaras and ravens in the same territory, but have never seen them close enough to each other to see if they fight.