Hello, Birders. Thanks to everybody for the great discussion. (And thanks to Elena Klaver for finding the bird that's prompted all of this.) Oldtimers may recall that we had a similar conversation four years ago. For example: http://tinyurl.com/4vrc2sg Also, the problem of raven identification was taken up, not all that long ago, in a photo quiz in Birding: http://aba.org/birding/v40n5p72.pdf (Quiz Bird D.) I have three general thoughts: 1. The coolest things about our crows and ravens is that they have NO field marks. Not in the traditional sense, that is. No wing bars, eye stripes, crown patches, belly bands, tail spots. No stinkin' nothin'. Not even any color. They're just black, and nothing but. Love it! 2. It's great that folks are spending time thinking about and studying ravens. Recently, I've been involved in updating the range maps for a major field guide, and discussion with Colorado birders have provide the basis for my provisional (dotted lines!) changes to the winter range of Chihuahuan Raven. We're generating new knowledge, and that's wonderful. 3. The following is just a hypothesis. Or maybe we should just call it pure conjecture. Anyhow, I hypothesize, or conjecture, that winter movements of Chihuahuan Ravens in eastern Colorado are tied to cold weather and snow cover. I'll be the first to say that we are nowhere near to saying that that's actually the case. But it's something to ponder the next time there's a prolonged cold spell with snow cover. ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Blog: http://tinyurl.com/2g2staq Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/2ejzlzv Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/2wkvwxs -------------------------------
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