Ravens in the Rain

Zerohawk - "Please allow me to correct you..."
Pitmix - "Why are you all hatin' on the defenseless ravens?"
Nostrachumash - "They are all our ancestors"
Byzantine - "Whatever that are, they do not belong here"
Getoffmylawn - "I'm with Byz"
Ginger1 - "I demand an explanation"
Voiceofreason - "Freeloaders"
...

I find it amazing how smart crows and ravens are. I recently saw a video where a crow bent a piece of wire on one end to create a hook in order to better access food.

Definitely not ravens. Just one of the many, many groups of crows that have grown in the size of their flocks over the years here in SB, driving out many of the smaller native birds.

When I lived in Palmdale for over 20 years I saw a lot of Ravens. Occasionally hundreds of them would congregate in a field near my home. We called it a Raven Convention. As others have mentioned, they're much larger than crows and their calls are very different. They also use very different calls when communicating with each other too. Another interesting thing about Ravens, in addition to their intelligence and vocalization, is that like crows they mate for life (unless the mate is killed). Since I've lived in Santa Barbara for the past 20+ years I've never seen a Raven, only crows.

Crows for sure. Ravens don’t gather in that way, and we are very unlikely to see a raven on the south coast. On the other side of the mountains, but not on the coast side in our county.

They're here in the Islay / Laguna area often, year round it seems.

We saw ravens in an Anchorage zoo, and they were SO much more interesting than even our large crows. They just emanated intelligence, with a language far more complex and subtle. In the Riverside area are smaller crows than the murders we see around here, maybe a desert species. Out on San Miguel Island the crows seemed larger and smarter than our city gang, but still seemed to lack the spade-shaped tail said to define a raven. Maybe a UCSB ornithologist will weigh in and give us some details. Anyway, thanks for a great pic Beverly. Reminds me some of a painting by Judy Powell (prior Adult Ed schedule wizard), who did the crows in deep black that showed them as portals to another realm.

Definitely crows, who love to pick a tree and roost there together. A magnificent sight in the Milpas street trees across from Trader Joe's at sunset when dozens of them return to their special tree and argue about who sleeps on which branch.

Crows. Ravens are rare in heavily urbanized areas, and they are usually seen solitary or in pairs. My favorite raven sighting was in the Carrizo Plain where one did a barrel roll and then flew upside down briefly. It was an awesome things to see.

They used to be called a
"Quoth of Ravens" , but alas...

Beverly,

Thanks for this. Beautiful birds. I’ve been watching for years. Always wondered where they were headed.

1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . Counting crows.

HI Beverly, how are you certain these are ravens? they appear to be crows by their size and smaller bill. Ravens are much larger, about the size of a redtail hawk, these guys looks like crows which are roughly the size of a very large pigeon. Ravens also have larger bills.