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Information about Fan Tailed Raven

Fan-tailed Raven
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Family:Corvidae
Genus:Corvus
Species:C. rhipidurus
Binomial name
Corvus rhipidurus
Hartert, 1918
The Fan-tailed Raven (Corvus rhipidurus) is a passerine bird of the crow family native to Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Like the Chihuahuan Raven it is one of the smaller species (47 cm in length), in fact it is about the same size as a Carrion Crow but with a much thicker bill, shorter tail and much larger wings.

Description

The Fan-tailed Raven is completely black including bill, legs and feet and the plumage has a purplish-blue gloss in good light. Worn plumage is slightly coppery-brown. The base of the feathers on the upper neck are white and only seen if the bird is inspected or a strong gust blows them the wrong way. The throat hackles are shorter than in most other ravens.

The voice is described as guttural croaks mixed with the sound of frog-call.

Distribution and habitat

Enlarge picture
Distribution map
It occurs in the Middle East, North Africa, Arabia, and south to Sudan and Kenya. It also ranges across the Air Massif in the southern Sahara. It lives in desert or open dry country that includes crags for nesting. It is one of the most aerial of birds traveling huge distances in search of food, its large wings being adapted to gliding on thermals in a rather vulture-like way.

Behaviour

Diet

Food is invariably taken on the ground and includes all manner of insects and other invertebrates, grain taken from animal dung, carrion and scraps of human food. It has also been seen taking skin parasites from camels and where not persecuted, scavenges around rubbish dumps and camp sites. Fruits of all types are course eaten readily. It soars and plays in thermals even more so than other Raven species and often associates with the Brown-necked Raven roosting in the same tree as it.

Nesting

This species nests on rock ledges and in cavities in cliffs though very rarely in Somalia it has been known to nest in trees. There are usually 2-4 eggs laid. The Great-spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) sometimes uses this species as a brood host.

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References

conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, nor Near Threatened, nor (prior to 2001) Conservation Dependent.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Passeriformes
Linnaeus, 1758

Suborders
  • Acanthisitti
  • Tyranni
  • Passeri


A passerine is a bird of the giant order Passeriformes. More than half of all species of bird are passerines.
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Corvidae
Vigors, 1825

Genera

many, see article text

Corvidae is a family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies and nutcrackers (Clayton and Emery 2005, [1] ).
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Corvus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

See text.
The true crows are large passerine birds that comprise the genus Corvus. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-sized jackdaws (Eurasian and Daurian) to the Common Raven of the
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (October 29, 1859 - November 11, 1933) was a German ornithologist and oologist. Hartert was born in Hamburg. He was employed by Lionel Walter Rothschild as ornithological curator of his private museum at Tring from 1892 to 1929.
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Corvidae
Vigors, 1825

Genera

many, see article text

Corvidae is a family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies and nutcrackers (Clayton and Emery 2005, [1] ).
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية, or جزيرة العرب) is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of
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C. cryptoleucus

Binomial name
Corvus cryptoleucus
Couch, 1854

The Chihuahuan Raven (Corvus cryptoleucus
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C. corone

Binomial name
Corvus corone
Linnaeus, 1758

Carrion Crow range


The Carrion Crow (Corvus corone
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Middle East is a historical and political region of Africa-Eurasia with no clear boundaries. The term "Middle East" was popularized around 1900 in Britain, and has been criticized for its loose definition.
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North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven territories:

  • Algeria
  • Egypt
  • Libya

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Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية, or جزيرة العرب) is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of
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Motto
"Al-Nasr Lana"   (Arabic)
"Victory is Ours"
Anthem
نحن جند للہ جند الوطن   (Arabic)

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Motto
"Harambee"   (Swahili)
"Let us all pull together"
Anthem
Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu
"Oh God of All Creation"
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State Party
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Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى, aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-koubra, "The Great Desert", (
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VULTURE is the name of a fictional international crime cartel in the DC Comics universe. It first appeared in House of Mystery #160 July (1966), created by Jack Miller and Joe Certa.
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Insecta
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders
Subclass Apterygota
* Archaeognatha (bristletails)
* Thysanura (silverfish)
Subclass Pterygota
* Infraclass Paleoptera (Probably paraphyletic)

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Invertebrate is an English word that describes any animal without a spinal column. The group includes 97% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata (fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals).
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Camelus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

Camelus bactrianus
Camelus dromedarius
Camelus gigas (fossil)
Camelus hesternus (fossil)
Camelus sivalensis (fossil)

Camels
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thermal, see thermal (disambiguation).


A thermal column (or thermal) is a column of rising air in the lower altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere.
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C. ruficollis

Binomial name
Corvus ruficollis
Lesson, 1830

The Brown-necked Raven (Corvus ruficollis
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Anthem
Soomaaliyeey Toosoow
Somalia, Wake Up


Capital
(and largest city) Mogadishu

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