Bird of Prey? Kent, England. (1 Viewer)

[TheCyclingMod]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can ID this bird for me.

It was quite a way in the distance yesterday so it's not an ideal photo to ID from, I apologise. It looked absolutely huge even from a distance.

Thanks in advance.

 

[David_]

Looks more like a raven to me than a bird of prey. Don‘t know what the white patches on the wing are. Maybe reflections of the sun?

 

[Butty]

Crow or raven with white bits. Judging the size of a lone bird is notoriously unreliable.

 

[TheCyclingMod]

Looks more like a raven to me than a bird of prey. Don‘t know what the white patches on the wing are. Maybe reflections of the sun?

Thanks for the reply. Never seen a raven before. It does seem to have the beak/head shape of one. Could be reflections of the sun. Maybe part leucistic?

 

[TheCyclingMod]

Crow or raven with white bits. Judging the size of a lone bird is notoriously unreliable.

Cheers!

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

Just wanted to say welcome to BirdForum from all the staff and moderators. A member of the crow family was my first impression as well.

Rich

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,

welcome to birdforum!

a Raven for me, too.
And I agree with all, that, haze, sharpening artefacts and single picture effects makes confident identification difficult. But my first impression was: is this really necessary here?

• long, wedge shaped tail
• the right proportions of the wings in relation to the tail and body
• the right bill shape can just be guessed. Yes, wishful thinking. But a plausible explanation is, that its indeed a Raven.

Or do I squeeze too much out of this picture?
Do you have more pictures?

 

[tconzemi]

3 remarks:

• partly white feathers are often seen in Carrion Crow (viral disease or food deficencies discussed)
• I have never seen a Raven with this condition (but they may exist)
• although I fully agree with Alexander's points I think a single picture of this quality can be deceptive

 

[David_]

long, wedge shaped tail

This is what immediately made me think of a raven. But after taking another longer look I have to agree that it’s probably impossible to rule out Carrion Crow based on this single picture

 

[lou salomon]

More pics needed from another angle to clinch it, but I'm pretty sure this is a Carrion Crow. Apart from the mentioned likeliness of leucism in C. corone versus corax head shape (though moulting) and even shape of wings and tail. A spread tail of course is rounded like this in corone but in raven it would be even more pointed, probably, in such a side view. And longer, proportionally.

 

[RichieTwitchy]

I'm thinking Raven.

I've edited the OPs original image (hope that's okay) and I think the brightness of the sky affects the true outline of the bird and therefore I think I can see a decent throat and build of a Raven.

Also, I've uploaded an image of my own of Raven's having a disagreement - you can see the shine on the top bird's wings and this was a cloudy day.

I've seen this bright shine on Raven's wings before and it is not leucism - although I understand that that was mentioned with regards to CC and not Ravens.