Yay, birds!! I suppose I am a moderately serious birder in that I have a list of all the birds I've seen and actively go looking for ones I haven't seen yet. But I am completely with you about common birds being underrated! I'm always happy to look at any bird, even ones I see every day. I'd love to visit England someday and meet all these birds I've only seen in pictures. In the US we do have the very same rock pigeons, house sparrows, common ravens, and starlings (the last of which are considered invasive, sadly, since they compete with native species). We also have our own kinds of blackbirds, goldfinches, nuthatches, and so on, but I don't think there's any species overlap.

I think you have more kinds of corvids than we do, so I can understand mixing them up. The ones I have trouble with are gulls. There are many species, but a lot of them look alike, and the same species can look very different depending on the bird's age. (I think the bad behavior is pretty universal, though... when I was little one stole a hot dog out of my hand!)