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Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad April 20, 2006 Above: Two birds have a snack. Below: A bird flies off with food at Hunter Park this spring , but is it a raven or a crow? After reading the story take a guess using our survey below and find out the answer. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings A raven? Make sure not to eat crow By Chris Honoré Tidings Correspondent Edgar Allen Poe opens his poem, “The Raven,” with some of the best-known lines in Western literature: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary ... while I nodded nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping at my chamber door.” Poe gets out of bed, throws open his chamber door, and sees perched on a bust of Pallas an ebony bird wearing a “grave and stern decorum of the countenance.” A raven, Poe assumes. Well, maybe. Southern Oregon University science Professor Stewart Janes believes the bird that was rapping, and gently tapping, could just as easily been a crow. Only if Poe had been a keen bird watcher, would he have known the difference. And had he consulted an ornithologist, providing a detailed description of his late-night visitor, Poe might have had to call his poem “The Crow.” (That would have been unfortunate since — as titles go — “The Crow” has nowhere near the gravitas of “The Raven.”) Details make the difference “Ashland has both ravens and crows,” says Janes, “and it takes a bit of careful observation before you get good enough to confidently identify them. I usually rely on relative bill size and shape of the wings more than anything else.” He adds, “Ravens have longer, narrower wings and carry themselves differently in flight, have wedge-shaped tails, a longer and more massive bill than the crow, and a ruff of feathers on the neck that crows don’t have. Size works sometimes, but it doesn’t always help that much.” An adult Common Raven is 21 to 27 inches long; an American Crow is about 4 to 6 inches smaller. Crows can thrive in densely developed places and have little fear of people. Ravens are less comfortable around humans, preferring wilder surroundings. Another difference is that the crow’s voice is also less hoarse than the raven’s. Crows and ravens are omnivores and will eat just about anything. It’s not unusual to see them perched on carrion at the side of the road. They also eat seeds, fruit and garbage; raid other birds’ nests; and catch and eat small animals. Ravens have even been known to hunt rabbits, though with less skill than hawks. Intelligent, even fun-loving Both species are highly intelligent, cunning and have even been described as fun-loving. Some wildlife biologists rank them on a par with wolves and coyotes. Janes notes that crows will use tools to help retrieve food, and ravens have been known to drop rocks on people who venture near the birds’ nests. Hollywood often has used the presence of crows and ravens to hint that something dark or supernatural is about to happen. The morbid image may have developed partly because the birds were commonly found on the field of battle, picking over casualties. The birds also play prominent roles in Native American mythology. “In different Native American cultures from those on the Northwest coast to the desert Southwest, ravens are revered while crows are reviled,” says Janes. “Why one should be honored and one despised across many cultures has been curious to me.” Leave a Comment: --> Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.