Австралия қара қарғасы

Passerine bird native to Australia

The Australian raven (Corvus coronoides) is a passerine corvid bird native to Australia. Measuring in length, it has an all black plumage, beak and mouth, as well as strong, greyish black legs and feet. The upperparts of its body are glossy, with a purple blue, greenish sheen; its black feathers have grey bases. The Australian raven is distinguished from the Australian crow, and other related corvids, by its long chest feathers, or throat hackles, which are prominent in mature birds. Older individuals and subadults have white irises, while the younger birds' eyes display blue inner rims; hatchlings and young birds have brown, dark irises until about fifteen months of age, at which point their irises become hazel coloured, with an inner blue rim around each pupil, this lasting until they are roughly 2.5 to 3 years of age. Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield described the Australian raven in 1827, its species name coronoides highlighting its similarity with the carrion crow (C. corone). Two subspecies are recognized, which differ slightly in their vocalisations, and are quite divergent, genetically. The preferred habitat of the Australian raven includes open woodlands and transitional zones, in addition to cities and towns; it has adapted well to human settlements and other urban environments, and is a commonly sighted bird in several major cities, including Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. The Australian raven is territorial, with pairs generally bonding for life. Breeding takes place between July and September, with almost no variation across its range. The nest is a bowl shaped structure of sticks sited high in a tree, or occasionally in a man made structure such as a windmill or other building. An omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, the Australian raven eats a wide variety of plant and animal material, from fruits and seeds to lizards, chicks of other bird species, and small mammals; they will also scour waste bins and disposal sites for human food waste, such as various produce, meats, seafood, eggs, etc. The ravens living in eastern Australia are often associated with sheep farms, and have been blamed for the killing of lambs; however, this is an exceedingly rare occurrence, as the ravens are likely seeking the afterbirth from ewes that may have recently given birth. Additionally, ravens aid in environmental "cleanup"—much like vultures on other continents—by helping rid the area of potentially dangerous pathogens which could deploy on carrion, stillborn farm animals (or other deceased mammals and birds), even scavenging newborn mammalian faeces.

The Australian raven was first described by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827, when they reported George Caley's early notes on the species from the Sydney district. Its specific epithet coronoides "crow shaped" is derived from the Greek corone/κορόνη "crow" and eidos/είδος "shape" or "form". The two naturalists regarded the Australian raven as very similar in appearance to the carrion crow (C. corone) of Europe, though they noted it was larger with a longer bill. They did not give it a common name. later determined to be this species. In his 1865 Handbook to the Birds of Australia, John Gould recognised only one species of corvid in Australia, Corvus australis, which he called the white eyed crow. He used Johann Friedrich Gmelin's 1788 name, which predated Vigors and Horsfield's description. In 1877 Richard Bowdler Sharpe recognised two species, but recorded that the feather bases of the type specimen of C. coronoides were white. He named C. coronoides as the "crow" and C. australis (as Corone australis) the "raven". Gregory Mathews described the western subspecies perplexus in 1912, naming it the southwestern crow and noting that it was smaller than the nominate subspecies. He called C. coronoides coronoides the eastern crow, listing its range as New South Wales, and described what is now the Australian crow as another subspecies, C. coronoides cecilae, calling it the north western crow and recording its range as northwestern Australia. In the same work he listed the raven as Corvus marianae, with a type specimen from Gosford and listing its range as New South Wales. He listed the little raven and forest raven as subspecies. Mathews had erected C. marianae in 1911 as the name after declaring Corvus australis Gould to be preoccupied; French American ornithologist Charles Vaurie acted as first reviser under Article 24 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) Code and discarded C. australis as a junior homonym—in 1788, Gmelin had used the same binomial name to describe the black nunbird—to preserve the stability of the name. This has been followed by later authors. German ornithologist Erwin Stresemann lumped all Australian corvids plus other species as far as India into a single species, C. coronoides, as he believed there was intergradation between all characteristics such as iris colour, colour of feather bases and plumage. This was hotly disputed by Mathews. The official RAOU checklist listed three species (Australian raven, Torresian crow and little crow), with the little raven recognised as a fourth species in 1967 and forest raven in 1970. Stresemann described C. difficilis in 1943 from a single specimen, now thought to have been an unusual Australian raven or an Australian raven/Torresian crow hybrid. Alternative names sometimes seen include southern raven, southern crow and Kelly, the last thought to have alluded to the Kelly Gang, though did not appear until the 1920s. Southern crow was considered by the RAOU before Australian raven was adopted as the official name for the species in 1926. The term "crow" is colloquially applied to any or all species of Australian corvid.

A circovirus—given the name raven circovirus or RaCV—was isolated from an Australian raven suffering from feather lesions in 2006. It has affinities with canary circovirus (CaCV) and pigeon circovirus (PiCV). Its clinical significance is unknown. A species of Isospora—given the name of I. coronoideae was isolated from this species, its only known host. Tick infestation is rare in the Australian raven, with Ixodes holocyclus and Amblyomma triguttatum recorded. Lice and hippoboscid flies have been recorded yet little researched, and an infestation by the fly Passeromyia longicornis was recorded in one nest. Scientific observation in the country's southeast showed that the killing of healthy lambs was rare, but that sick animals were predisposed to being attacked. Australian ravens mostly eat faeces (often from the lamb's anus), afterbirth or stillborn lambs. Newborn lamb faeces is nutritious, containing around 21–44% protein, 9–37% fat and 10–30% carbohydrate. It has the consistency of treacle and often sticks to the lamb's hindquarters or tail. The raven bites a sleeping lamb's tail, holding on and walking behind it when it wakes up. A healthy lamb would respond by running away or butting the bird, but a sick one might not respond and be attacked further as it alerts the bird that it is vulnerable. Wounded lambs can also succumb to Clostridium infection as these bacteria are present on raven bills.

In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Crow is a trickster, culture hero and ancestral being. In the Kulin nation in central Victoria he was known as Waa (also Wahn or Waang) and was regarded as one of two moiety ancestors, the other being the more sombre eaglehawk Bunjil. Legends relating to Crow have been observed in various Aboriginal language groups and cultures across Australia. To the Noongar people of southwestern Australia, the Australian raven was Waardar, "the Watcher" and was wily and unpredictable. Noongar people were socially divided into two moieties or kinships: waardarng maat and marrnetj maat, or members of the Australian raven and long billed corella (Cacatua tenuirostris) respectively.