Corvus rhipidurus
Silhouette: Peileppe · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The fan-tailed raven (Corvus rhipidurus) is a passerine bird of the crow family native to Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. 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. One of the smaller raven species, it is about the same size or slightly larger than the carrion crow, at 47–51 cm, but with a much thicker bill, shorter tail and much larger wings.
The voice is described as guttural croaks mixed with the sound of frog-call. Like all corvids, the fan-tailed raven is capable of vocal mimicry; however, this behavior is mostly recorded in captivity and, very rarely, in the wild.
It occurs in the Middle East, North Africa, Arabia, and south to Sudan and Kenya. It also ranges across the Aïr 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... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 2 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Bale Mountains National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Raven sighting in Bale Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 47 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 35th most-seen of the 117 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Raven in Bale Mountains National Park on a given day, against about 10% in November, the lowest month. That is one of Bale Mountains National Park's driest months, with about 40 mm of rain against 230 mm in April. March and September have too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Fan-tailed Raven sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Raven sightings, Bale Mountains National Park ranks 4th at about 30%. The best odds are in Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 40%), Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 40%) and Samburu National Reserve (Kenya, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Corvus
The closest relatives of the Fan-tailed Raven that you can see in Bale Mountains National Park (genus Corvus, Crows and Ravens) are Cape Crow (about 50%), Thick-billed Raven (about 20%) and Pied Crow (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan-tailed Raven is recorded against all the birds logged in Bale Mountains National Park (47 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
