What's the Difference Between Ravens and Crows? (2024)

If you see an all-black bird soaring overhead, it's likely a crow or a raven. Which of the two classes of corvid it belongs to, however, can feel like anyone's guess to a beginner birder. Even plugging the sighting into Merlin Bird ID, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's beloved and dependable app, can stump the system. It takes a trained human eye to decipher a crow from a raven.

Here's a rundown of the two conspicuous, lookalike birds and how to identify one when you hear its raucous calls in your neighborhood.

Raven and Crow Classification

Ravens and crows are both corvids, of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus. They share that genus with the lesser-known Palearctic rook. The name "Corvus" itself is Latin for "crow," and so "crow" is a term colloquially used to describe the entire genus.

The IUCN has assessed 44 described Corvus species, including 32 with the common name "crow" and nine with the common name "raven." The best-known species in North America are the common raven (Corvus corax) and American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos).

Corvids can be found all over the world except South America and Antarctica. The American crow can be found all throughout the U.S. and Canada whereas the common raven occurs more frequently in the Western U.S. and parts of the upper Midwest and Maine, throughout Canada, and into Mexico. Sparser raven populations are are found in the Appalachian Mountains and in Northeastern U.S. States. The common raven is more widespread globally than the American crow.

Characteristics of Ravens vs. Crows

If you're in an area where both ravens and crows are common, the easiest way to tell them apart—at least from afar—is by the size. Ravens are generally larger—about the size of a red-tailed hawk, the National Audubon Society says. An adult common raven's wingspan is about 3.8 feet whereas the American crow's wingspan is about 2.8 to 3.3 feet.

If you're able to get a closer look, you'll also notice differences in their beaks. A raven's beak is larger and curvier with longer bristles at the base than crows have. The curved shape reflects the power of the beak, needed for the raven's preferred diet of carrion; crows, by contrast, are mostly herbivorous and eat carrion only on occasion. The National Audubon Society notes that ravens have shaggier throat feathers, as well.

Those clued into the crow's characteristic caw might be taken aback by the common raven's low-pitched gurgling croaks and grunts, plus its tendency to "scream bloody murder." Research has shown that these screams are likely used to attract other ravens to a food site when the food is difficult to access.

Conservation Status

Of the 44 Corvus species assessed by the IUCN, only one is endangered, two are vulnerable, three are near threatened, and 35—including the American crow and common raven—are of least concern. In fact, 29 of the 44 species are stable or increasing in population. This is not the case for most other animals attempting to weather the ever-evolving, ever-worsening climate crisis, so why are crows and ravens doing so seemingly well?

Rather than human development pushing the birds out—what happens with many other species—humans are actually drawing these opportunistic feeders in with trash and all sorts of easy food sources. This has created what Audubon has called an "ecological nightmare" in Southern California and the Great Basin region, where raven populations have risen by 700% over the past 40 years. Now, those ravens are wreaking havoc on other at-risk species.

Likewise, crow populations seem to be increasing in response to urbanization. They prefer to breed, feed, and live amongst humans, and they require very little space, which cities can accommodate.

The one glaring exception to this finding is the endangered Flores crow (Corvus florensis) of Indonesia. Described as a forest-dependent bird, this species is actively threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation; it contained as few as 600 mature individuals in 2016, the time of the last assessment.

Correction—September 6, 2022: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the range of the common Raven.