ML346502381

Observation details

While driving east on TN 52 at the Little Creek bridge, I saw a large corvid with a large, thick beak and long wedge-shaped tail fly across the road from south to north. I quickly stopped, grabbed my binoculars, and walked out onto the bridge. Over the next 15 minutes I observed at least 4 and possibly 5 ravens in the forested gorge area north of the bridge. The birds were a few hundred yards from the bridge most of the time. At one point, 3 birds were perched in a large dead tree and another bird was perched in a different nearby dead tree. One bird appeared to be begging for food from another. Because of the distance, I could not distinguish any plumage characteristics indicating some of the birds were fledglings. Because of their behavior and variety of vocalization, I believe some were fledglings. The birds were identified by their large size, flight pattern, beak and head shape, and tail shape, as well as by their calls. I recorded calls of multiple birds in a video which I converted from mp4 to mp3.