Species: Corvus corax
Common Raven
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
See Heinrich (1994, Wilson Bull. 106:571-572) for information on distinguishing juveniles and adults using plumage characteristics.
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Aves
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Corvidae
Genus
Corvus
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Cuervo Común - grand corbeau
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Corvidae - Corvus - May constitute a superspecies with C. RUFICOLLIS of the Old World (AOU 1998).
Ecology and Life History
See Heinrich (1994, Wilson Bull. 106:571-572) for information on distinguishing juveniles and adults using plumage characteristics.
Migration
true - false - false - Basically sedentary, but some migration has been reported for birds in the most northern part of the range.
Non-migrant
true
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Opportunistic; in some areas, largely a scavenger on various animals; also commonly eats bird eggs and young, rodents, some fruits, cereal grains, insects.
Reproduction Comments
Clutch size is 3-7 (usually 3-6). Incubation is entirely or mostly by female (fed by male), 18-21 days. Young are tended by both parents, leave nest in 5-6 weeks. When food supply is limited, smallest chick often does not survive. Young remain with parents for several weeks after fledging.
Ecology Comments
May roost communally in groups of up to several hundred individuals (e.g., see Wilson Bull. 104:105-121). <br><br>Home range size of breeding birds was 0.2-4.4 square kilometers in coastal California, where ranges of nesting pairs sometimes overlapped; breeding season home range averaged 6.6 square kilometers in Utah, 9.4 square kilometers in Wyoming (see Linz et al. 1992). Territories in Minnesota were much larger, averaging 40.5 square kilometers (Bruggers 1998).
Length
61
Weight
1240
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-12-02
Global Status Last Changed
1996-12-02
Other Status
LC - Least concern
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
Resident from northernmost North America south to southern Baja California, Nicaragua, Texas, and, east of Rockies, southern Saskatchewan, northeastern Minnesota, northern Michigan, southern New England (Flanagan 1993), and in Appalachians, locally south to northern Georgia. Also in Greenland, Iceland, North Africa, Europe, and Asia.