How to Identify Little Crow Feathers

What Little Crow's Feathers Look Like

The Little Crow is the smallest of Australia's five corvids, and its feathers reflect that scaled-down build. Body (contour) feathers are entirely black with a glossy blue-purple to green sheen in good light, but look flat sooty-black in overcast conditions or once worn. Flight feathers (primaries and secondaries) are proportionally shorter and narrower than those of a raven, typically 25-32 cm for the longest primaries, with a slightly rounded tip rather than a strongly pointed one. Tail feathers are medium length and only gently graduated, giving a rounded rather than wedge-shaped tail in the whole bird.

A genuinely useful trick with corvid feathers is checking the base color where the feather was rooted in the skin: Little Crow (like the Torresian Crow) has grey feather bases, whereas Australian Raven and Forest Raven show white bases. Throat and upper-breast feathers on a Little Crow are also fairly short and rounded, lacking the long, pointed, shaggy "hackle" feathers ravens display.

Step-by-Step: Is This Feather From a Little Crow?

• Measure it. Flight feathers under about 30 cm and body feathers under 6 cm point toward Little Crow rather than a raven.
• Check the gloss. Hold the feather at an angle to the light — a blue-green-purple iridescence over solid black supports a corvid (crow or raven) rather than another all-black bird.
• Look at the base. Gently part the barbs near the calamus (quill) — a pale grey base favors Little Crow or Torresian Crow over the white-based ravens.
• Assess shape. A body feather that is short, rounded, and lacks an elongated point rules out the display hackles of a raven and fits Little Crow.
• Consider size context. If several feathers from the same source are all noticeably small for a "crow-sized" bird, Little Crow is more likely than the bulkier Torresian Crow.

Similar Species & How to Tell Them Apart

• Torresian Crow — larger overall with longer flight feathers and a heavier bill; feather bases are also grey, so size and range are the main separators (Torresian Crow favors coastal and tropical northern/eastern Australia, Little Crow favors arid inland country).
• Australian Raven — noticeably larger, with elongated, pointed throat hackle feathers and white feather bases, the single most reliable feather-in-hand distinction from Little Crow.
• Little Raven — similar size to Little Crow but with grey feather bases like the crows (unlike the larger raven); range and habitat (Little Raven favors temperate south-east Australia, open woodland and farmland) help separate the two where ranges approach.

Where & When You'll Find Them

Little Crows are birds of arid and semi-arid inland Australia — mulga, saltbush plains, and open grazing country — often gathering in noisy flocks around carcasses, roadkill, or livestock. Feathers turn up year-round near communal roosts, watering points, and along stock routes, but you'll find the most fresh material during the post-breeding molt in late summer to autumn, when adults replace worn flight feathers before winter.