Size, face and croak: sorting the big black ones
Start with size. A Raven averages 63 cm, a Carrion Crow 48 to 52 cm, and the raven’s deep croak sounds nothing like a crow’s call. The Rook has a whitish, bare face and nests in groups at the tops of tall trees near farms and villages. Rooks mostly stay put, though the most northerly birds move south in hard winters, and every spring they return to the rookery to breed.
The Hooded Crow has an ash-grey body with black head, wings and tail. The British Ornithologists’ Union treated it as a species separate from the carrion crow in 2002. In Scotland it is the hoodie, and in Northern Ireland it goes by grey crow. Young carrion crows, by contrast, are brownish with blue eyes that darken as they age.
The crow family on Linnut
Town and garden species come first, then the birds of moorland, coast and woodland. The calls differ more than the plumage.
Pale eyes and long tails
The Jackdaw measures 34 to 39 cm, with a grey nape and a striking pale eye. Pairs stay faithful and pack sticks into holes in buildings, cliffs or trees. Sea-crow was one of its old names, because it turns up on the coast so often.
The Magpie belongs to a small group of birds known to recognise themselves in a mirror. Its bulky nest sits in a fork high in a tall tree and is roofed with a dome of prickly twigs that leaves one hidden way in. Most magpies are sedentary and stay near their nesting territory through the winter.
Acorns and a red bill
The Jay is the woodland member. Its species name, glandarius, means of acorns, and a single bird can spread more than a thousand of them through the wood in one year.
The Chough, also called the Cornish chough, has glossy black plumage, red legs and a curved red bill. Folklore once tied it to fire-raising, and it is linked with Saint Thomas Becket as well as with Cornwall.