Ravens

AUSTRALIAN OR LITTLE RAVENS

In my first year as a primary school teacher, I worked with the children of my small rural school to  present a Christmas play called 'Crows'. I have no idea of the connection of this short musical play to Christmas, but it is what we performed anyway.



 
 It told the story of a country boy who became lost in the outback. As he wandered about, looking for his way home, crows followed, watching and waiting. It now seems a very gruesome story for young children. Even now I remember the words of one song the children sang.





'Three black crows
Caw diddle daw,
Sitting in a ghost gum and very bored.
See the boy fall off his horse,
It amuses them of course.
Three black crows,
Caw diddle daw.'

 The implication of course was that the crows were waiting to see what might happen to the boy. Corvids are highly visible birds with their glossy black plumage and their white and blue eyes. They have a reputation for evil, and usually disliked. That is not surprising as many regard the sight of a crow as an omen of death. They are great scavengers and so have a valuable part to play in the natural world but it is a part that many people do not find pretty. I wonder if the word ravenous comes form the name raven.





As children, we always called black birds crows. Big or small, crows or ravens, we labelled them all the same. They are corvids, the Latin word for crows.

We do have crows in Australia but there are found in the drier parts of the continent. Those that we see around the southern coast of the continent are usually ravens, and these I think are Little Ravens, Corvus mellori. The beard of the Little Raven is described in The Australian Bird Guide as having bifurcated tips when looked at alongside the Australian Raven. I think these have bifurcated tips to their beards!

Occasionally we put the tail-end of a stale bread loaf outside the door. The ravens come along and with their big beaks manage to pick up the whole lot. The 'poor' sparrows don't get a look in. The ravens then take all they can mange to the bird bath, where they soften the hard scraps in the water before flying off with it. It is fascinating to watch them although they do leave an awful mess in the bird bath.