Corvus rhipidurus
Silhouette: Peileppe · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Raven sighting in Addis Ababa on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 81st most-seen of the 109 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Raven in Addis Ababa on a given day, against under 5% in February–October and December, the lowest months. Those are among Addis Ababa's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain a month against 250 mm in August.
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.
Only Addis Ababa, in our data
Addis Ababa is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Fan-tailed Raven sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan-tailed Raven is recorded against all the birds logged in Addis Ababa (17 verified sightings), 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.
