Raven around

 
A pair of Australian Ravens Corvus coronoides and a youngster are spending a lot of time around here at present, as they discovered the remains of a pumpkin in the compost bin and have been busy devouring what they can dig out. The young bird is still in the begging to be fed stage and is spending a lot of time calling on the parents for food. They are the most wary of birds and generally take flight as soon as they see you and move off to a distance considered safe. However I did manage to get close enough for a couple of photos. The adults have a striking white eye with a blue inner ring which tends to give a blue colour to the whole iris whilst the young birds have a brownish iris. We are keeping a watch on them at present as the citrus in the orchard are starting to ripen and Ravens love  ripe oranges. They snip the fruit off the tree and then proceed to get every bit of flesh out of the orange. Netting the trees helps keep them off but the net has to be fairly secure as the will bounce on the net until they can reach through and nip off an orange which falls to the ground and rolls out under the net; very smart birds.