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Little Crows are visibly the smallest Australian corvids. Their plumage is glossy-black on the back, plain black in front. Their appearance depends mostly on the angle of infalling sunlight. The length of the slender bill is shorter than the size of the head. When perched, they appear to be long-legged. In straight, level flight the tail is long, thin and straight, with a slightly rounded tip. The eyes have whitish irises. The relatively short, straight bill is dark-grey. The legs and feet are also dark-grey, with pink foot soles. Juveniles have fleshy gapes, dark irises and a shorter bill and tail.

Twitcher's tip

The correct identification of corvids in the field is notoriously difficult. Little Crows are visibly smaller than other crows or ravens and have a bill that is visibly shorter than the length of their head. If visible, e.g. when ruffled by wind, the base of feathers of ravens is grey (while those of crows have white bases). The transition from black to grey is gradual (while in crows the transition from black to white is abrupt). Also their call distinguishes Little Crows from other species of corvids.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Little Crow is available HERE .

NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species.

Little Crows are endemic to Australia. They are normally found across parts of the southern half of Australia, only rarely extending their range farther North. Their range extends from the north-western half of NSW and the south-eastern corner of QLD across most of SA, into the southern central NT (up to Alice Springs and just to the North of there), along the South coast of SA into central western WA (but not the south-western tip including Perth). After substantial inland rainfall they can extend their range to most of the interior of the continent, except parts of the Simpson Desert, the Great Victoria, Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts. They do not venture into the far North of the continent (Kimberley, Top End of the NT, Cape York peninsula) and are not found in the Great Dividing Range either. This exclusion zone includes the coastline on the VIC/SA border, the area around Adelaide, SA, and the hills to the North of the city.

Little Crows are adapted to the semi-arid to arid parts of the interior, in open plains and grassland, but also along roadsides. They adapt well to the presence of humans and are also found in urban environments.

Where to look? How to find this species?

The primary problem with finding Little Crows is not that they are difficult to see or hear, but difficult to identify (from other corvids. The easiest way to find a Little Crow is to visit a community/town where they are the only species of corvid. For example, Bourke, on the edge of Outback NSW, is such a place.

Little Crows were first seen and identified by us in the township of Bourke, NSW, in March 2008. They were seen again in Bourke, NSW, in September 2012 and on other occasions since then.

M. Eaton reports finding Little Crows in Thargomindah, QLD, in June 2020. Others were found near the Will Hutchinson Memorial, 8 km S of Coober Pedy, SA, in October 2022, and at Erldunda, NT, in June 2023.