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Years ago, when I lived in Greece, I saw crows from a close distance, but never with this peculiar colouration. Today I saw two individuals, both with these gray parts.

Location: Austria, Vienna. Pretty much in the city centre. Specifically Altes AKH Hof 2 near the rear yard of the department for East Asian studies.

Time: I am not sure. Probably before my lecture (around 10am) or after it (12am). I'll see, whether I find the timestamp of the picture anywhere.

Size: Now, at this I am really bad. I would say roughly the length of my boot, which is a 47-48 European continental size.

Behaviour: nothing interesting. Two of them came, stalked around the benches, did not make sounds and as far as I remember were gone quickly. They were not afraid of people.

A Bird I saw in Austria

My guess is Corvus cornix , but I have always been bad at identifying birds.

EDIT: Unfortunately, I didn't see the linked answer. But had I seen it, I would probably have assumed my bird wasn't Corvus cornix. The plumage in the linked answer looks significantly more colourful. Whether you want to mark it as duplicate or not, I am fine with your decision, since I have little practice in identification. However, I find the answer here more detailed when it comes to differentiating C. cornix from other corvids. The linked answer only states the results. The answer here teaches us what to look for!

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  • $\begingroup$ Its a hooded crow or grey crow. Their common in the uk and they are a plague in Ireland. $\endgroup$
    – user33005
    Jun 8, 2017 at 4:32
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    $\begingroup$ Can you add some more details to the question - habitat and location where you saw it (more specifically than 'Austria'), what time of day you saw it, and its rough size? $\endgroup$
    – arboviral
    Jun 8, 2017 at 12:44
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    $\begingroup$ Similar coloration is found in the most common type of crow at my locality, which I know as Corvus splendens $\endgroup$
    – user25568
    Jun 14, 2017 at 7:39
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    $\begingroup$ @AlwaysConfused interesting! To me it looks like C. Cornix but I can't pinpoint the difference! $\endgroup$
    – Ludi
    Jun 14, 2017 at 10:59

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I'd say you guessed correctly. This does appear to be the hooded crow (Corvus cornix).

  • In German, it's called Nebelkrähe (meaning "mist crow").

enter image description here

A Hooded Crow Corvus cornix in the garden of Belvedere (Vienna). [Source].

Description: ashy grey bird with black head, throat, wings, tail, and thigh feathers, as well as a black bill, eyes, and feet.

C cornix is a Eurasian species that would be present in Austria:

enter image description here

Similar but incorrect species:

The only other similarly grey crow species I know are the grey crow (Corvus tristis), which is only present in New Guinea, and the western jackdaw Corvus monedula. The jackdaw is present in europe, but it can be ruled out because of its grey eyes and because of the grey feathers that creep superiorly from the birds nape onto its head (unlike your specimen).

  • Note: I exhaustively checked all commonly recognized species of the Corvus genus
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