What was this bird? Identification help please.

[BlackBirdInFlight]

What would this bird be in South Wales? Google isn’t helping.

It was a black bird (or very dark) about the size of a crow. It was flying along and every time it called, it would twist to the side 90 degrees in the air and stop flapping. Just for a second. And then right itself and go back to flying normally.

Do crows do this? I’ve not seen them do it before. It wasn’t in a flock.

Well i just asked google and apparently what you have described is textbook behaviour of a raven.

Definitely sounds like a corvid of some kind. Any extra info about where you were?.

Common raven.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/overview

Download the Merlin bird app, it’s great for bird identification.

The shape of its tail in flight would help identify it, diamond wedge shape it's a Raven, they are larger than crows. Round wedge shape it's a Rook, similar in size to crows but more of a grey/white colour to its beak.

We have all three here. Ravens make a very distinctive noise too.

A challenging task as nothing obvious comes to mind and I'm an avid watcher

By any chance could it have been a wimerwomerbanjo?

Agree it sounds like a Raven. The call is very distinctive, a sort of a cronking sound.

Thanks! Google did say raven but it just mentioned acrobatic flying but not specifically a twist at exactly the same time as a call. So I wasn’t sure. At one point I thought it was also falling out the sky as it tumbled down. Which does sound a bit raven-y. I’m gonna listen to the call to check.

It was so cool, I just stared at it for ages wondering why everyone else wasn’t staring. On Pen Y Fan.

Ravens do this,although they are a LOT bigger than crows- although it's not always easy to tell, they can be small crows close to or big ravens far away Dougal 😆 They're more prone to doing it in spring though.

Choughs can get up to that kind of thing too- are you near the coast? They have red beaks and legs though.

I think it was a raven! I listened to the call on YouTube and it was like that. So pleased I’ve seen one. No idea what it was doing the twist and call for? To be scary, for fun?

Thanks everyone!

In mating season ravens do a twisting falling flight display which is amazing to see. Perhaps it was practising?😁

Oh wow! I didn’t know that about the mating. I’m so happy to have seen one. I read a whole book about them once, by a guy who bred them in captivity and tested their intelligence. I wasn’t keen on the whole captivity bit of the book but the intelligence bit was amazing.

Maybe I’ll try to go back at mating season and hope to see the display.

Try ‘Corvus, A Life With Birds’ by Esther Woolfson - really interesting book about living with rescued corvids.

Oh I LOVE ravens. All corvids really. Wish we had them around me but we just get tits and robins and the odd interesting thing.

Thanks, I’ll have a look. It might make me want to quit work and rescue ravens instead.