#choughs

A Corvidae Feathursday

Here are some more wood-engraved birds -- both black and white and hand-colored --by British author and wood engraver Eric Fitch Daglish (1892-1966) from his 1948 publication Birds of the British Isles, published in London by J. M. Dent & Sons in 1948 in a limited edition of 1500 copies. Today we display all the corvids from this volume, from top to bottom:

Common Raven (Corvus corax)

Western Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula)

Red-billed Chough (pronounced "chuf"; Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)

Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) 

Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica)

Rook (Corvus frugilegus)

 Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)

 Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

Read more about this book plus view a hand-colored engraving of a Hoopoe here.

Decades after disappearing from the jagged cliffs around Tintagel Castle on the coast of north Cornwall, a bird with legendary connections to the area has returned.The custodian of Tintagel, English Heritage, and local ornithologists have declared that choughs – charismatic corvids with red beaks and feet – are back.

Choughs are considered Cornwall’s “national bird” and feature in its coat of arms but vanished as a resident from the far south-west of the UK in the early 1970s, largely because of the decline of their grazed clifftop habitat.

Their disappearance was keenly felt across Cornwall but particularly, perhaps, in and around Tintagel because of the bird’s connections to the legend of King Arthur.

Gergeti Trinity Church in Kazbegi, Georgia

Thomas Cromwell, Master of Choughs

Hello tis I, the bird nerd, here to yap about birds.

Everyone knows corvids: we’ve got crows, ravens, magpies, jays, rooks, and jackdaws. I wanna share some underappreciated corvids and some corvid facts!

🪶

Treepies

Treepies (Crypsirininae) are a subfamily of the Corvidae family who can be found within parts of Southern Asia. A total of twelve species of treepie are known: the collared treepie, grey treepies, rufous treepies, white bellied treepies, racket tailed treepies, bornean treepies, andaman treepies, hooded treepies, sumatran treepie, ratchet (not racket) tailed treepies, malayan and bornean black magpies, (are actually treepies!). Treepies share many similarities with magpies, such as general shape and intelligence.

Choughs

Choughs (Pyrrhocorax) are another lesser known subgroup of corvids. Some species of chough include the red-billed chough, and alpine choughs. White winged choughs do not belong to ghe Pyrrhocorax group, rather another, non-corvid group known as Corcoracidae.

Hooded Crows

I really just wanted to include my favorite kind of crow. The hooded crow can be found throughout Europe and Asia. They share similar coloration with jackdaws, but have a larger body and longer bill. Hooded crows are known by many nicknames: hoodies, scald crow, or grey crow.

Magpie-Jays

Magpie-jays (Calocitta) are a specific kind of jay that can be found in southern parts of North America, (usually Mexico). The two known species of magpie-jays are black-throated magpie-jays and white-throated magpie-jays

Lidth’s/Amami Jays

Native to only Japan, the lidth’s jay is a member of the genus Garrulus, old world jays, which includes two other jays: Eurasian jays and black-headed jays.

Thick-billed Ravens

This guys look so silly, so I had to include them. Thick-billed ravens share similarities with the white necked raven, but can be distinguished by the placement of their white marking, as it it found on the back of their head rather than neck. They are found within the Horn of Africa, Eritrea, Somalia, and Ethiopia.