Australian Raven may be a candidate for splitting.

By Birding-Aus, on June 21st, 2012

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your post on Birding-aus concerning the possible splitting of the Australian Raven.

I worked with Ian Rowley and was involved in all the field work on the Australian corvids in the 1960s. When we relocated to the Helena Valley lab in WA in 1969 all that research had finished, but we naturally maintained an interest.

Basically what we believed is listed on my website under Western Raven and has been for some time. The so-called gap on the Nullarbor is tenuous at best.

I’m glad to read that the New-England race of the Forest Raven (basically my discovery) is just that. There have been those who have suggested it is specifically distinct, people who have never studied corvids in the field.

Regards

Graeme Chapman ===============================

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Stewart Ford

June 24, 2012 at 3:24 pm

Hi Graeme et al.

A quick update on the availability of Schodde and Mason’s Directory – like many CSIRO publications it is available in eBook form from:

http://www.ebooks.com/616516/directory-of-australian-birds-passerines/schodde-r-mason-ij/

At $195 it might be considered a tad steep though!

Cheers,

Stewart

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Graeme Chapman

June 22, 2012 at 11:26 am

Thanks for showing an interest in ravens in W.A. etc.

It’s a while since I lived there (left WA in 1984) so my memory for the details is not perfect.

So far as I (and anybody) know, nominate coronoides doesn’t occur in W.A., but the Nullarbor is the key. Along with mellori, c. coronoides occurs as far as the cleared farming country in S.A. that is somewhere about Penong.

The common corvid across the Nullarbor Plain is bennetti but ravens do occur closer to the coast, about as far east as Eucla. – which ones is an interesting point, there are few specimens. The differences in specimens of perplexus and coronoides are not great, and when you take sexes and juveniles into account, it would need a good sample from the Nullarbor region and western S.A. to sort out what is the case.

I wouldn’t pay too much notice to the “data” in the BA Atlas – Corvids are probably the most mis-identified group in Australia – even the latest article in Australian Birdlife (Wingspan) has a few errors.

I feel confident that as soon as you reach Kalgoorlie, all the ravens would be perplexus. Heading north from Perth, ravens are replaced by Torresian Crows at the mulga/eucalypt line, on the coast road about 150 km north of Geraldton.

I assume you don’t have access to Schodde and Mason’s DIRECTORY (few people do, mores the pity – they only printed 1000 copies) so I am attaching copies of the relevant pages for coronoides. Whether the Western Raven merits specific status is far from settled, otherwise it would have been done already. DNA is not the final word.

I hope this has been more help than hindrance.

Graeme

Steve Clark

June 22, 2012 at 9:38 am

G’day Graeme

Thanks for your thoughts and reference to your site with calls.

Are you suggesting that the ‘Western’ Raven is confined to the south-west corner and the birds elsewhere in WA are nominate coronoides? Looking at the BA atlas data in Birdata there doesn’t seem to be a gap along Highway 1 across the Nullabor. Corvids are tricky however so how many of the dots are C. coronoides and how many are C. bennetti? I must check my own records from our trip across in 1999 when I get home tonight. From memory we allocated many to C. bennetti (but I’ve learned to put less trust in my memory these days).

So, as you drive west and head into sw WA where do you think the ‘Western’ Raven first appears? What about heading north from Perth?

Cheers Steve ===============================