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The raven has been described as a 鈥済rim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore鈥 (to quote Edgar Allan Poe). The bird鈥檚 bad reputation鈥攁s a bringer of death and dark omens鈥攃ouldn鈥檛 be more wrong. Enjoy these surprising facts about ravens from naturalist Henry Walters鈥攁nd let鈥檚 redeem the raven!
Redeeming the Raven, Evermore
So I hear you鈥檙e looking for a life coach. You know, somebody to straighten you out, get you back on track. Somebody who won鈥檛 mince words when you need a tongue-lashing. And not just a talker, either, but a problem-solver, a doer, a daredevil, the sort who鈥檚 got the gumption to put himself out on a limb and the brains to get down again.
Smart, sociable, funny, somebody you can look up to?
Hold on a second鈥攖he raven? 鈥淥nce upon a midnight dreary鈥 and all that? That raven?
Not a comforter, not a companion, but a 鈥渇iend,鈥 calls it, a harbinger of doom, a messenger from 鈥渘ight鈥檚 Plutonian shore.鈥 For Poe, as for many others before him, the apparition of this dark bird, with its shaggy throat and massive head, would be laughable if not for the abysmal foreboding it seems to inspire.
Literature, historically, has not been kind to the raven. In Mother Goose rhymes, the bird is a mischievous villain (鈥淎 raven cried croak! and they all tumbled down, / Bumpety, bumpety, bump!鈥). In anonymous Scots balladry, two ravens discuss, with obvious enjoyment, a gruesome feast of human flesh (鈥淵e鈥檒l sit on his white hause-bane [breastbone] / And I鈥檒l pike out his bonny blue een [eyes]鈥︹). The playwright Christopher Marlowe calls the raven 鈥渟ad-presaging,鈥 heralding death. In fact, the executioner鈥檚 block was commonly called the 鈥渞aven-stone.鈥
Is it any wonder the collective term for a group of these birds is 鈥渁n unkindness 辞蹿&苍产蝉辫;谤补惫别苍蝉鈥?
An 鈥淯nkindness鈥 of Ravens, Feeding with Wolf. Photo by Jim Peaco.
Looks and habits are partly to blame for the bird鈥檚 reputation. The raven is physically huge, nearly two feet long, and with an average wingspan of over four feet, making it as large or larger than most red-tailed hawks. All black, with a cruel curve to its enormous bill, it has a taste for carrion and even catches small mammals occasionally. Seeing such a shadow pass overhead, you could be forgiven for thinking that this bird is related to the vultures. (Sheep farmers have long persecuted the raven, mistakenly imagining that it preyed on lambs).
Yet if you climb up the raven鈥檚 family tree, you鈥檒l find that it鈥檚 actually a passerine, or songbird鈥攁 kind of monstrous, overgrown sparrow. Its more nuclear family are the corvids, or crows, a group which also includes jays, magpies, and nutcrackers, comprising well over a dozen species in North America. While the raven鈥檚 distinctive croaking is not much of a song, its other vocalizations can be downright beautiful, especially the sweet, bell-like notes that could be mistaken for a marimba鈥檚. What鈥檚 more, it鈥檚 capable of mimicking any number of sounds, including human speech.
Immature Red-shouldered Hawk & Common Raven. Photograph by Cliff Otto
A fascinating thing about all corvids, and the raven in particular, is their obvious intelligence. Whether secreting away food in caches, fashioning 鈥渄igging sticks鈥 to extract grubs from holes, or solving problems like the crow in Aesop鈥檚 fable, this avian family possesses a level of curiosity and resourcefulness that is second to none. Crows in California have been observed setting down whole walnuts on the crosswalk of busy intersections. When the light turns green, passing cars crack open the nuts; when the light turns red, down come the crows to their easy feast.
A quick survey of YouTube will bring up hours of footage: corvids making fishhooks, corvids playing in the snow, corvids stealing lunch out of picnic baskets, corvids caring for an orphaned kitten, corvids pulling a fox鈥檚 tail, corvids sledding down roofs on pieces of plastic, corvids stashing leftover breadsticks in people鈥檚 slippers, corvids lifting up people鈥檚 pant-legs in order to untie their shoelaces 鈥
Ornithologist Stewart Janes, sneaking up on a raven鈥檚 nest in Oregon with a colleague, was startled by a golf ball-sized rock falling out of the sky, as he said, 鈥渋n front of my face.鈥 A raven had positioned itself on a ledge about 30 feet above and was prying loose more stones to drop on the intruder. Janes and his companion took shelter, but not before one rock hit Janes in the leg. (He survived the injury.)
Raven Calling. Photo by Frank Vassen
Curious and playful, ravens have as much personality as you are likely to find. Bernd Heinrich, a well-known naturalist and student of ravens who has also kept them temporarily as pets (an experience not for the faint of heart), writes that ravens 鈥渇ly to play.鈥 And few other birds seem to show such evident delight on the wing, riding air currents off mountaintops and cliff edges, barrel-rolling, chasing or shadowing a companion in synchronized aerial dance, graceful as Astaire and Rogers in their prime.
I once saw two ravens playing 鈥渟tick,鈥 a game in which one dropped a twig from a great height while the other stooped down to snatch it out of midair a few feet above the treetops. Then, the roles would switch. Again and again, they pulled off the stunt. This happened directly over the heads of a crowd of people. Each time a raven snagged the twig, spontaneous applause broke out from the audience. 鈥淏oy, oh boy,鈥 said the woman next to me, 鈥渨hat I would give to do that, even once.鈥
Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it鈥檚 not surprising that she and The Old Farmer鈥檚 蜜桃恋人 found each other. She leads digital content for the 蜜桃恋人 website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
one thing i dont understand is ravens/crows are eating dead animals from the road and have to fly off when cars go by.If they are so smart why dont the move the roadkill off the road so they dont have to stop eating each time a car comes
We were visiting The Grand Canyon a few years ago and I was sitting on a big rock eating a sandwich and a Raven joined me!! I鈥檇 never seen a Raven and was shocked by its size!! Beautiful black feathers. It fascinated me!! Brought to my mind Poe鈥檚 famous poem. And yes. I did share my sandwich with it which I know better than to do with any wild animal or bird.
Delightful article. One recent summer several crows were my daily entertainment as I watched them and I often found them sitting on my deck chair watching me. I would love to see a raven. Thank you!
Thank you for this article.
It is a joyful opportunity to expand my horizons on the subject of ravens and crows considering the centuries-old folkloric legacy which is not always kind to them.
My eyes and mind are significantly more tuned into their behaviors now and I have a smile on as I follow them in their natural habitat.
I鈥檝e taken to making crows, ravens in glass and telling stories about our connections with them in totems. Many art galleries organize juried shows on crows etc. which I鈥檓 grateful for.
Thanks for the great story about Ravens~I was privileged to be "owned" by one for about 11 years! I raised him after he was injured and unable to fly, it was truly a remarkable experience! Their intelligence and curiosity is truly a marvel and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him and his wonderful intelligence. I will never forget him!
While living in Yukon, in the dead of winter, -40 or colder the ravens would perch on top of the street lights' sensors so they would switch on and give them heat during the short daylight hours.