You mean like… curtains?

They may be magnificent, but are they powerful?

Whoever said bird people are boring clearly hasn’t seen some of the names they come up with.

Hmmm flying in formation like that sounds more like waterfowl. Could it be cormorants? Are you by the shore or near a large body of water? They can be all black like crows and the begging sound of the double crested cormorant does sound kind of seagull-y?

If they’re fish crows though, that’s cool, they’re rarer than the carrion crows we’re more used to. In any case I’m glad if I could be of help and I hope you continue to enjoy listening to and watching birds!

Hmm when you say flying in formation do you mean in like a cloud or a specific shape? If so could be starlings as they have a very varied repertoire of songs and can mimic other birds (which might explain why Merlin can’t identify them)

When you say ‘jagged wings’ do you mean you can see the individual feather tips (like fingers)? Could be fish crows? The juvenile sound could be a little seagull-y?

Grackles are usually fully black apart from having lighter eyes. Some species flock together, and like starlings they also minic other birds.

Edit: one thing to note is Merlin doesn’t always work well if you’ve turned GPS off on the phone. That might also interfere with identification

Where are you based approximately? Europe/Asia/US/etc? Is the bird fully black? Same size as a crow? Any distinguishing information might help!

If anyone is wondering, that’s a red-backed fairywren. Here’s some other great fairywrens (literally, it’s in their names):

Lovely fairywren

Superb fairywren

Splendid fairywren