Australian Little Raven

Today we went to the top end of the Belair Park a little earlier to look for more birds. I got photos of lorikeets, wattle birds, and rosellas, but for the most part nothing spectacular.

As we were leaving the park, I spotted this flash of black feathers in a tree not far away. It was an Aussie Little Raven. Not a colourful bird, but still an important part of our local scene.
The Little Raven is, at about 48-50 cm in length on average, somewhat smaller than the Australian Raven.

See the black back clearer.

Research in the 1960's proved that there were five species of crows and ravens in Australia instead of three as previously thought. This Little Raven (Corvus mellori) is, as far as I can tell, the first one to be blipped in BBY. I'm delighted again to get a new bird, two days in a row, for the BlipBigYear.

Ravens belong to the Corvid family and corvid distribution thanks to inland irrigation, means that they now occur as far north-west as Bourke in NSW and further up the Darling River system and over the border into Queensland. In other words, they are pretty common.

In metropolitan Melbourne and Adelaide, Little Ravens predominate. Over most of their range, the Australian Raven also occurs but these two are quite easy to tell on voice alone. Little Crows sound a bit like Little Ravens.

Little Ravens will scavenge on an animal carcase if they get the chance. They do eat carrion when it is available but they are mainly insectivorous.