Corvidae
Australian Raven
Corvus coronoides
The Long Wail
- Length
- 52 cm
- Wingspan
- 100 cm
- Family
- Corvidae
Identification
The larger, longer-hackled raven of the south-east. All black, with a pale adult eye and throat hackles that hang like a beard when the bird calls. On the Peninsula they are outnumbered by Little Ravens; look for the longer tail, the more solitary habit, and — always — the voice. A drawn-out, descending wail is this bird; a short bark is the other.
Distinctive marks
- Long, shaggy throat hackles
- Pale adult eye
- Longer, slightly rounded tail
- Often alone or in a pair
- Drawn-out wailing call
Behaviour & ecology
Less sociable than Little Ravens. Pairs hold a timbered territory and work it with a kind of grave attention. They take carrion, nestlings, fruit, and whatever a street provides, and they notice when a familiar person changes route.
Voice
A long, mournful 'aah-aah-aaaah', falling away at the end, often given with the hackles raised. Once heard beside a Little Raven's bark, the two cannot be un-known.
On the Peninsula
Taller timber, older suburbs, and the inland edge of the Peninsula. Less a bird of the foreshore than of a high dead limb over a paddock or a golf-course eucalypt.
Season
Year-round. The wail carries farthest on still winter mornings.
Diet
Carrion, invertebrates, nestlings, fruit, and scraps.
Conservation
Secure.
Lore & resonance
The wail is not grief. It is a measuring of distance. An Australian Raven calls as if the air between two trees needed to be named, and then left alone.
If you would attract them
They ask for unpoisoned ground and a tall roost, not a feeder. If one takes to your street, you have been assessed and found sufficient.
