What's the difference between a Raven and a Crow?

I haven't posted anything for a while. The reason is that my parents had this great idea to refurbish our house. They had been planning to do it for years, so I didn't think it would ever happen. But a few weeks ago they told me that they would need my room for storing bricks and cement and stuff. And that's why I had to go and stay with my grandma for a while.

My grandma's a little crazy, but she's also very nice. I didn't mind living with her for a few weeks. She bakes the most amazing cakes! The only problem is that she doesn't have any broadband at her place...

Anyway. I'm back home now. My parents are almost finished (there's still lots of cement bags and bricks stored on our driveway). So I thought I should post something new...

Last week, my cousin Carl (who is a few years older than me and totally into horror stuff) told me something very strange about crows. He said that they sometimes attack people and hack out their eyes. I thought he was just trying to scare me, so I asked my dad about it. He didn't think they did. But he also couldn't explain the difference between a raven and a crow. So I got online and did a little research.

Here's what I found out: Crows and Ravens are actually all part of the same crow family called corvus. Crows are a bit smaller than ravens (pigeon size), and they are less shiny. Ravens are huge, almost as big as a falcon. But they live farer away from cities and from people, so we usually see them less.

I only ever see crows when they sit outside my window in our neighbour's garden. Sometimes there's a few flying over our house (a few crows flying together is called a 'murder of crows'- which I think is pretty cool!). It's hard to tell what they look like when they're flying. But apparently they have a very different shape of tail (which you cannot see when they are sitting down). Crows' tail feathers are fan-shaped and a raven's tail looks a little more wedge-shaped.

Another way to tell crows and ravens apart is the way they sound. A crow's call sounds a bit like an angry poodle and a raven's call sounds more like a complaining old person. Check out these videos on YouTube for an example:

Video 1: angry poodle crow

Video 2: old person raven

Crows eat almost everything they can find. Berries, little insects and also dead things. In the stories of old, people saw them after battles and such because they fed on the dead bodies and the fallen horses. I think that's why a few of them together are always considered to be a bad sign.

So - as it turns out - crows actually will hack out your eyes if you're a dead soldier lying in a ditch somewhere. They will also eat your horse. But the good thing is that they would not try and eat you while you're still alive, so there's no need to worry.

What most people don't know is that ravens also eat dead things. But they usually do it alone. Maybe that's why they're not as well known for it.

 If you want to find out a little more about crows and why they sleep together in roots, check out this informative website: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm.

For some more information on crows and ravens in celtic and native American myths, you could have a look at this blog.

The picture with the crow and the pram was designed by Dark Shepard - I found it on imgfave.com. The image with the flying raven came from people.tribe.net.