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 Samburu National Reserve on a given day, based on 315 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 75th most-seen of the 341 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.
September and October
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Fan-tailed Raven in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, against about 10% in February, the lowest month.
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.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Fan-tailed Raven sightings, Samburu National Reserve ranks 3rd at about 30%. The best odds are in Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 40%) and Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Fan-tailed Raven is recorded against all the birds logged in Samburu National Reserve (315 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.
