‘It’s just not a raven’: Possible mistaken identity could give bird a chance at new life

Mortimer the raven was saved by a Saskatoon woman. But provincial rules say the woman’s act is illegal and she could be charged.

Ashley Field, Video Journalist

Published Friday, December 14, 2018 5:06PM CST
Last Updated Saturday, December 15, 2018 2:11PM CST

A Saskatoon woman who has been fighting to hold onto an injured bird she nursed back to health may have caught a break after some confusion as to whether the bird is a raven or a crow.

Last month, Evangeline Mackinnon found the bird with a broken wing.

Mackinnon welcomed the bird into her home, named it Mortimer and has been nursing the bird back to health.

“It was either kids were going to find him, or a cat was going to get him. It was inevitable that he wasn’t going to have a very long life,” she said.

Mackinnon initially thought that Mortimer was a raven, but now some American researchers are saying that’s not the case.

‘It’s just not a raven’

Kaeli Swift, a Corvid Scientist at the University of Washington has studied crows for a decade, and had been following Mortimer’s story.

“It was immediately clear to me that it’s not a raven, it’s an American Crow,” said Swift

After seeing pictures and videos of the bird, Swift was convinced that Mortimer is not a raven.

“One of the really distinctive features of ravens is that they have these special throat feathers called ‘hackles’. They’re these really coarse feathers and they use these feathers in a variety of behavioral displays and communication. Crows don’t have them. They’re throat feathers are much more typical bird throat feathers, where they’re really fine and smooth,” said Swift. “So in terms of a really nice clear objective field mark, that’s probably the best one.”

Jennifer Campbell-Smith, a Corvid Scientist with a PhD studying crows at Binghamton University in New York, also believes that Mortimer is a crow.

“It’s 100 per cent a crow not a raven,” said Campbell-Smith.

She also noted Mortimer’s featherless throat and slender build make her confident that he is a crow.

Ravens are a ‘protected’ bird in Saskatchewan

After she found him, Mackinnon took Mortimer to a wildlife veterinarian, who told her the wing was permanently damaged and couldn’t be rehabilitated – so Mortimer would have to be put down.

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Malta's 'barbaric' finch traps ruled illegal by EU court

 Campaigners hail court verdict, which bans trapping of several species of the bird

Arthur Neslen

Thu 21 Jun 2018 12.52 BSTLast modified on Fri 22 Jun 2018 10.43 BST

Malta has broken EU law by allowing the hunting and trapping of several finch species, the European court has ruled.

The Mediterranean island will face potentially substantial fines unless it ends a derogation it introduced in 2014 allowing the songbirds to be captured.

An estimated 110,000 finches have been caught by hunters since then, along with many other wild birds such as song thrushes and golden plovers.

Catherine Bearder, the Liberal Democrat MEP, hailed the verdict as “a welcome judgment that confirms what we have all known for too long. The slaughter of these wonderful birds is illegal and unsustainable. The EU must step in and take action to stop the killing without delay.”

Finch-trapping was once common across Europe but the practice has been progressively rolled back by the EU’s birds directive, which aims to conserve avian species and prevent habitat destruction.

In Malta, the continued use of clap nets to trap birds has led to the near absence of many nesting species of migratory birds, according to BirdLife Europe.

Ariel Brunner, the group’s policy chief, said: “Today’s court judgment sends a message that the rule of law must be respected. It should mark the end of indiscriminate trapping, which is a completely unsustainable and barbaric practice.”

According to BirdLife, the court verdict effectively outlaws the trapping of finches in Malta, which had been due to resume with this autumn’s hunting season. It will directly apply to seven protected species: siskins, goldfinches, European serins, linnets, greenfinches, common chaffinches and hawfinches.

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Cal woman hides bird rather than give to state

PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman sent a raven into hiding rather than let fish and game officials seize and kill the bird named Edgar.

"The state game warden threatened me with a misdemeanor citation and said Edgar would have to be euthanized," said Debby Porter, 59, who lives in Palmdale, 50 miles north of Los Angeles. "A misdemeanor doesn't mean that much to me, but I don't want Edgar euthanized."

Porter bought Edgar for $2,000 in 2006 in Alabama and raised him by hand at her Palmdale home where she's built two elaborate aviaries for blind or injured crows and ravens.

Keeping Edgar and the 20 other birds violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, wildlife officials told the Los Angeles Times.

On Aug. 29, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents took 20 birds, but left Edgar behind, saying he was an African pied-crow and brown-necked raven hybrid, not a North American migratory bird.

It wasn't long before the California Department of Fish and Game told her she had to turn over Edgar because she didn't have a permit to keep him.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Cal-woman-hides-bird-rather-than-give-to-state-4125020.php#ixzz2FPLXferX