biology

Thick-billed raven

Thick-billed raven is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thick-billed raven rather than just read about it. In short: The thick-billed raven (Corvus crassirostris) is a large passerine bird in the family Corvidae. It is endemic to the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia.

Key takeaways

Thick-billed raven belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thick-billed raven to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thick-billed raven from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The thick-billed raven (Corvus crassirostris) is a large passerine bird in the family Corvidae. It is endemic to the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia. The thick-billed raven shares with the common raven the distinction of being the world's largest corvid.

Description The thick-billed raven averages 64 cm (25 in) in length, with a range of 60 to 70 cm (24 to 28 in) and weighs approximately 1.15 kg (2.5 lb) in females and 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) in males on average. Its size is about the same as the largest subspecies of common raven (i.e. those from the Himalayas and Greenland/Canadian Northwest Atlantic) but some common raven subspecies are rather smaller and, going on average weights, the thick-billed raven is likely the heaviest extant passerine. The thick-billed raven is about 25% heavier on average than the Australasian superb lyrebird, which is sometimes erroneously titled the largest passerine. Its bill is laterally compressed and is deeply curved in profile. This bill, the largest of any passerine at 8–9 cm (3.1–3.5 in) in length, is black with a white tip, with deep nasal grooves and only light nasal bristle covers. This raven has very short feathers on the head, throat and neck. The throat and upper breast have an oily brown gloss, while the rest of the bird is glossy black except for a distinctive white patch of feathers on the nape and onto the neck.

Distribution and habitat The thick-billed raven breeds in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and has non-breeding populations in Sudan and Somalia. Its habitat includes mountains and high plateau between elevations of 1,500 to 3,400 metres. It is one of several avian species endemic to northeastern tropical Africa.

Behaviour

Diet The thick-billed raven is omnivorous, feeding on grubs, beetle larvae from animal dung, carrion, scraps of meat and human food. It has been seen taking standing wheat. When seeking food from dung, it has been seen using a distinct scything movement to scatter the dung and extract the grubs.

Nesting It nests in trees and on cliffs, apparently building a stick nest like the similar and more widely distributed white-necked raven. It lays three to five eggs. In one case, thick-billed ravens were observed to vigorously displace predatory Verreaux's eagle owls from their nest area.

Voice

Its calls include a harsh nasal croak, a low wheezy croak, a "raven-raven", and sometimes a "dink, dink, dink" sound. Like many corvids, the thick-billed raven is capable of vocal mimicry; however, this behaviour is rare in the wild, and is normally recorded only in captivity.

Gallery

References

External links

Thick-billed Raven videos, photos & sounds on the Macaulay Library

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thick-billed raven

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thick-billed raven claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thick-billed raven before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thick-billed raven ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thick-billed raven

In research: Thick-billed raven appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thick-billed raven in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thick-billed raven is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1836, Birds of the Horn of Africa, Corvus, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thick-billed raven outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thick-billed raven in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thick-billed raven means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thick-billed raven out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thick-billed raven in simple terms?

The thick-billed raven (Corvus crassirostris) is a large passerine bird in the family Corvidae. It is endemic to the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia.

Why does Thick-billed raven matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thick-billed raven?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thick-billed raven.