Yellow-Billed Crow-sized bird... (1 Viewer)

[PeteQuad]

Could be - I remember Heckle and Jeckle. Although I guess they were supposed to be Yellow-billed Magpies, even though they were all black.

 

[nartreb]

Could be - I remember Heckle and Jeckle. Although I guess they were supposed to be Yellow-billed Magpies, even though they were all black.

I always wondered about those birds! You are correct, according to Wikipedia their first episode was titled "The Talking Magpies" and they had pale bellies (but pale feet and beaks too).

https://archive.org/details/the_talking_magpies

Not a bird most of the audience would have recognized even had it been more accurately depicted, as its range is limited to parts of California.

 

[Sangahyando]

The only possible thing I can think of (not sure if this has been previously said in this thread or not?) is that maybe people's memories are somehow being influenced by cartoon/comic-strip portrayals of crows with yellow bills? (Dumbo and, in Britain at least, the Kia-Ora orange squash adverts come to mind...)

Quite possible - crows and ravens with yellow bills is a stereotype that also seems common in Germany. Although unlike Californians, we do have Alpine Choughs, which anyone going on a ski trip in the Alps is probably familiar with. So that's one possible origin for the misconception. Another one would be Rooks, whose pale bills might be mistaken for yellow, but they don't occur in America, either.

 

[_pauls]

and yet no one has produced a photo of one

Yes given that some people are seeing them regularly and close up you'd think that a photo would have shown up at some point in the 10 years since this was first posted.

 

[Peter C.]

Hi all:

Anyone else notice that almost everyone on this thread who has absolutely, definitely, for sure, seen a yellow-billed crow - has only posted once, and then promptly vanished again?

....Some sort of wind-up? (But to what freakin' end?)

I suspect they're all one guy, possibly a bored professional Russian troll; or maybe a 'bot.

Peter C. (o)<

 

[Birdbrain22]

The Yellow-billed Crow sighting is the new Ivory-billed Woodpecker sighting!

 

[Sasquatch Fingers]

I grew up on the west coast (CA and western WA) and traveled the region fairly extensively and never seen or heard of such a thing.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

With the current record-breaking 'Big Year' battle drawing to a close, I wonder which of the guys at the top will crack, and spend the last few hours of daylight of 2016 trying to nail this one!

 

[Xenospiza]

Probably Starlings. When some Europeans can turn these into Nutcrackers, some Americans can surely turn them into crows. They are masters of mimicry after all!

 

[_pauls]

No matter what variant of keywords I type in to Google Image search I cannot find a single image of a crow with yellow beak from the USA, even if narrowed down to the San Fernando Valley. For an almost 11 year thread that anecdotally refers to regular sightings it seems extraordinary that no-one has managed a photo.

I wonder how many europeans think starlings are small crows and that crows are ravens? I guess a fair few but given the confidence of the reporters and the tendency of these to be single post accounts I have to assume its an amusing attempt at a windup. Credit for keeping it up for 11 years though

 

[dantheman]

Starlings makes sense.

That or the yellow-billed dwarf variant of the regularly occurring Giant Ravens out there ...

 

[Dancat]

This bird was seen in Cape May (New Jersey) in late October. No one could come up with an explanation except for a long-billed Alpine Chough or a crow holding a French fry. Looks like the op's description.

 

[Dancat]

2nd of two photos. I did not see the bird, these were the only photos taken. The observer swore the bird was not holding anything.

 

[Xenospiza]

I think the bird was holding something after all: I've had similar experiences with crows carrying things in their beaks (e.g. corn cobs). Take an out-of-focus shot and you've got your yellow-billed crow!
But I like the fact that a pic showed up immediately after someone complaining.

 

[Dancat]

I think the bird was holding something after all: I've had similar experiences with crows carrying things in their beaks (e.g. corn cobs). Take an out-of-focus shot and you've got your yellow-billed crow!
But I like the fact that a pic showed up immediately after someone complaining.

Lol complete coincidence. I just came across this thread and remembered a similar description from a conversation in our local SMS RBA.

 

[stevethehydra]

Hard to tell on such blurry photos, but my impression is that the crow is holding something in its bill - it looks too big in the first pic and wrongly angled in the second. (But blurry photos make this feel even more like a sasquatch/thylacine/IBW sort of thing!)

I wonder if another reason why people are making single posts and then disappearing could be embarrassment after realising that the memories they had been sure of were actually influenced by something as "silly" as a cartoon? But then the cartoon and other pop-culture images must have come from somewhere... what made the animators of Dumbo, for example, decide to give their crows yellow bills? Confusion with Yellow-billed Magpies? (this would maybe be plausible if YBM are common around Hollywood and crows aren't...) Or just because it looks better/is easier to animate with expressive facial features?

 

[njlarsen]

I Ever thought of an escaped Myna(h)? most are larger than starlings, some are mostly black, most have yellow bill.

Niels

 

[Sasquatch Fingers]

Not sure how anyone that actually can correctly ID a crow could mistake a starling for one. I mean... size, tail length, bill size and shape... As for Disney's crows, someone finally just asked the studio.

http://www.lauraerickson.com/radio/program/10384/disneys-crows/

 

[Nutcracker]

Just for completeness, two black birds with yellow bills, that haven't been mentioned yet in this thread.
Don't think either of them will be responsible for the claims, though :-O



Black Scoter
Double-crested Cormorant

 

[njlarsen]

Not sure how anyone that actually can correctly ID a crow could mistake a starling for one. I mean... size, tail length, bill size and shape... As for Disney's crows, someone finally just asked the studio.

http://www.lauraerickson.com/radio/program/10384/disneys-crows/

For a beginner, I still think Myna would be a possibility: http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Common_Hill_Myna

Niels