Hello Dean,
Certainly you are right and the Little Raven is the common one there. I only know of parts of central Australia where two corvid species are common. My book about the birds of Canberra mentions this curiosity. In Canberra where I am, the Australian Raven is the common one and I have them nesting with young in the tree in my back yard right now (as I do most years). Of relevance to your question though is my article: Veerman, P.A. 1979, Additional Records of Birds from La Trobe University (Australian Bird Watcher 8(2); 40-41). That reports on my time there from 1975-1978 and updates the 1976 article by Richard Zann. That mentions only one record of the species over all that time and only of a pair of birds seen. I remember the event.
Odd really to think of them as so uncommon in Melbourne, when the reverse is true at Canberra, not so far away.
Philip Veerman 24 Castley Circuit Kambah ACT 2902
02 – 62314041
