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A bigger challenge is to differentiate a Northwestern Crow from an American Crow. > It is smaller than the American Crow and has a more nasal call, but it is s
by Tiktaalik 8y ago
A bigger challenge is to differentiate a Northwestern Crow from an American Crow.
> It is smaller than the American Crow and has a more nasal call, but it is so similar that the two may in fact be the same species.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northwestern_Crow/overview# https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northwestern_Crow/overvi...
I didn't even realize that my area had an apparently different crow than everywhere until I bought a birding book.
- juletide 8y agoActually, recent research indicates that these two species began differentiating themselves a long time ago, but their lineages have since converged: they now interbreed freely and there's no reliable way to tell the two species apart: https://twitter.com/dlslager/status/1072353359041085440 https://twitter.com/dlslager/status/1072353359041085440 It's been really interesting to talk to birders I trust about this. The rough consensus is, most people think they're the same species and will get merged back together soon, but some are very attached to the distinction between the two, haha. Birds are so cool! I think it's fascinating that we're still learning new things about this stuff all the time.
- Tiktaalik 8y agoHm the story from the posted tweet makes sense to me. Damn that is really cool.