I'm very lucky to have ravens nesting in the back yard this year. The male spends much of the day in a nearby cottonwood snag keeping watch, while the female keeps mostly hidden – except for a few tail feathers poking out of the nest. I expect to see more of her once there are chicks to feed.
I am reasonably sure these are Chihuahuan ravens (Corvus cryptoleucus), but the field marks are scant. The bird's head shape is somewhat blocky, and its hackles (chin feathers) are not very pronounced. To me its call also seems more nasal and crow-like than the deeper call of a common raven (C. corax), like a common raven with a cold. But both species occur here, and they are easy to confuse.
In Spanish, Chihuahuan ravens are called cuervo llanero, the plainsman crow, referring to their preference for life in high desert grasslands and scrubby chaparral.
