Dear Readers,
The crow family is not universally popular, and yet for me it contains some of the most interesting and enigmatic birds of all. There is no doubting their intelligence and ingenuity, even if their omnivorous habits and look-at-me antics attract the disgust of those who want to protect their smaller, more vulnerable garden birds. But can we tell them apart? And, trickiest of all, can we identify them by call alone? Hah! Here’s a challenge for you all.
Firstly, what crows are these? Some of these are my personal photographs and, just to make it a bit trickier, they aren’t always the best of shots. I know you’re up to the task.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. (Photo One)
7. (Photo Two)
8. (Photo Three)
Ok, so as if that wasn’t tricky enough, have a bash at identifying these crows by call alone. Good luck! NB All of the calls below were made by one of the birds in the photos above.
9. An ‘easy’ one to start 🙂
10. Often heard in autumn in oak woods…
11. Is this the most evocative call of all?
12. You country folk will be familiar with this sound…(not the woodpigeon in the background, that was last week 🙂 )
13. Sounds familiar?
14. If you think this sounds almost identical to (13) you’d be right…
15. What a cheerful bird!
16. This bird is said to say its own name, though I’m not sure I can hear it…
So there we go. As some of this is extremely difficult, I am going to give you until Tuesday to come up with your answers. Good luck!
And I would love to find out what other quizzes you would like, so for the first time ever I have added a poll. I have no idea if it’s going to work, but give it a go! You should be able to choose multiple subjects, or add some thoughts of your own. Let me know in the comments if you’re having any problems
Photo Credits
Photo One by David Hofmann / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
Photo Two by gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
Photo Three by By Andrew – originally posted to Flickr as chough, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7204919
Oh jolly good, I keep missing all the quizzes. Corvids are the best. Are we allowed to ask a friend?
Of course! No googling tho’ 🙂
1, Jackdaw
2, Carrion Crows
3, Magpie
4, Jay
5, Rook
6, Raven?
7, Hooded Crow
8, Chough
9, Magpie
10, Jay
11, Pheasant?
12, Rook
13, Crow
14, Skylark
15, Jackdaw
16, ?
Fran and Bobby, just a heads up that all the bird sounds are crows (in fact they are all UK crows), just in case you wanted to revisit one or two of your answers. I will put a note in the post too to make sure it’s fair to everybody 🙂
Is this Corvid-19?
1. Jackdaw
2. Carrion Crow(s)
3. Magpie
4. Jay
5. Rook
6. Raven
7. Hooded Crow (often seen at Innsbruck Kranebitten Airport)
8. Chough (not Alpine)
9. Magpie
10. ?
11. ?
12. Rook
13. Carrion Crow
14. Raven (and skylark)
15. Jackdaw
16. ?
Stone the crows – I wish I could participate! I think the idea of quizzes is great fun. I had no idea there were so many corvids in your part of the world.
Ah Anne, I shall have to find a quiz that everyone can join….I shall have a little think.
This is lovely thanks! Exactly one year ago today I was at Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland, where the staff were very pleased that ravens had successfully nested and raised young in a first-floor fireplace in a tower. I would show you my photos but they are pretty bad – just visualize a stone surround with a huge messy nest of sticks in it, and a big black bird! 🙂
That sounds amazing, Neville – in the village where my parents lived in Dorset, some of the locals would put wire mesh over their chimneys to stop the jackdaws from nesting on the chimney pots, which always seemed a wee bit mean. Not sure how they’d have coped if a raven had popped by!
Sorry didn’t realise the sounds were all Corvids. We think 11 may be the Raven and 14 the Crow ( with a lovely Skylark) 😁
No worries Fran and Bobby, I don’t think it was very clear in the post, and seeings as you won recently I wanted to give you the best possible chance to continue your run!
Here are my guesses. The pictures seemed easy but the calls much harder.
1. jackdaw
2. carrion crows
3. magpie
4. jay
5. rook
6. raven
7. hooded crow
8. chough
9. magpie
10. jay
11. raven
12. rook
13. crow
14. hooded crow
15. jackdaw
16. chough
I love crows so I was looking forward to this quiz! 1.Jackdaw, 2. Carrion Crow, 3. Magpie, 4. Jay 5. Rook, 6. Raven 7. Hooded Crow 8. Chough 9. Magpie 10. Jay 11. Raven 12. Rook 13. Carrion Crow 14. Hooded crow? 15. Jackdaw 16. Chough? I’ve never seen a hooded crow or a chough but have been lucky enough to see all the others, some of them pretty regularly.
OK, here are the Swiss best guesses:
1. Jackdaw
2. Chough
3. Magpie
4. Jay
5. Rook
6. Raven
7. Hooded Crow
8. Alpine Chough
9. Magpie
10. Jay
11. Raven
12. Chough
13. Hooded Crow
14. Crow
15. Alpine Chough
16. Chough
🤞🤞
Hi Mike, 11 out of 16 this week which is still a fine score! I think it’ll be plants this week, which will be a whole different challenge…
I’m surprised I (or should I say we, as my wife got a few of them) got that many! I realised afterwards that I’d put Chough down for most of them and should at least have ‘guessed’ Rook somewhere. Plants (unless they are alpine) are certainly not my favourite topic, so I’ll be even worse next week. But it’s the taking part that counts. 😊
Loved it! Got all the pictures right but vocal ID is way past my hearing range, other than the Jackdaw that is. Thank you Vivienne.
I think the calls are very hard, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have got all of them and I did the quiz and knew the answers :-). How are you doing in lockdown?
I am absolutely fine, thank you. I am used to spending all day alone, I keep busy when I want to be busy and can sleep when I want to do that too. I have the internet and books, so very many books. I find myself re-reading old books, possibly as comfort reads. Ocado deliver every other week too, so food and wine are still available. How about you?
I’m fine, Toffeeapple – I can still work, I get out for a walk every day, I have a garden, and yes, books!
Excellent!
Reblogged this on AVIAN HUES and commented:
It is an interesting post. I enjoyed trying to identify the birds.
How did your readers get on? I think it’s a tricky quiz, especially the bird calls…
Hi, I posted it two hours before,I will wait n see for the response.
So far one person liked
The post received 5 likes and one valuable comment. Thank you.Please visit the reblog to read her comments.
I wish to reblog the answer post of Sunday quiz,please grant me permission.
Go ahead!
Thank you!