Elder Jeffrey R. Holland made an ornithological error in his October 2020 conference address.  Ornithology is the study of birds.  He said that Elijah received a skimpy sustenance "in a raven's claw." I've never seen ravens or other corvids carry anything in their claws.  I've seen them carry things in their beaks, but I think they lack the ability to grasp and carry things with their feet.

Corvids are birds like ravens, crows, and magpies.  Magpies and crows--especially magpies--spend a lot of time foraging for walnuts under our tree.  They grasp them in their beaks and fly to a fence post where they split the shell apart and eat the nut.  They are somehow capable of splitting the walnut shell with their beaks.  I've wanted to watch the process, but have never been able to catch one in the act.  I theorize that they must deliver a sharp peck to the end of the walnut right in the seam between the two halves.  It would be hard to do, I should think, because I doubt that they have the ability to hold the nut still with their feet while delivering the peck.  I'll bet that they stand the walnut on end, and then peck it open.  They're adept at what they do, because there are walnut shells at the bases of every big fence post on the place.

Magpies themselves are perhaps ornithological errors.  Magpies can be found gathered around every dead cow.  I've always considered them dirty birds.  Those dirty birds also go into our greenhouse and steal our stored walnuts if the door is left open.  You can, therefore, imagine my consternation and surprise when Debbie, Marjorie's niece, who was visiting us from New Mexico, looked out our window and asked emphatically, "What on earth is that beautiful bird?!"

I looked, too, and said incredulously, "Do you mean that magpie!?"  I had truly never noticed anything attractive about the bird until then.  Seeing the bird through Debbie's unprejudiced eyes opened mine.  A magpie really is beautiful.  They're intelligent and useful.  They get rid of dead things that would otherwise offend me.  So maybe magpies aren't ornithological errors after all.

Starlings, on the other hand, might be.  I resent the person who introduced them to America.  He let several go in Central Park in New York.  They proliferated.  Great flocks of them can now be seen everywhere.  I resent the great flocks of them that raid our cherry orchard before the cherries are ripe enough for picking.

I've gained some respect for starlings, however.  I read Arnie the Darling Starling, and was impressed by the bird's intelligence and personality.  Even more impressive is the sight of thousands of starlings flying, swooping, twisting, and rolling in perfect synchronization.  That's called a murmuration.  It's spectacular.  It's a wonder.  How do they do it?  How do they keep from running into one another?  Why do they do it?  The performance is a thing of beauty, and is mesmerizing.

Type in "murmuration" on the Internet, and watch the results.  You can also read my thoughts on murmurations in I Have No Greater Joy, page 246.

So I suppose that no bird itself can be considered an ornithological error.  Only people make those.

The biggest ornithological error that people make is in calling ravens crows.  A raven isn't a crow, or vice versa.  They're both coal black, but a raven is bigger, and scruffy-looking.  A raven's feathers stand our here and there making the bird look a little unkempt.  Crows are smaller, glossy, and properly preened.

Another ornithological error that is easily made is to certify the call of a red-tailed hawk as having been made by the hawk and not by a Stellar's jay.  I'm hearing lots of red-tailed hawk calls this November, but there are no hawks around.  Seven Stellar's jays are using my bird feeder, though, and I've actually watched them imitate the call.  They do it for fun, and I've seen them do it to scare quail away from the block of bird seed that they want to work on themselves.  (See "The Liar" in Random Writings, page 4).

The ornithological errors that I most frequently make are in bird identification.  Many species of hawks and sparrows, in particular, confuse me.  I make lots of ornithological errors, so Elder Holland's is forgivable.