A Raven on Wednesday

On Wednesday afternoon I was out in the yard and saw a very large, hawk-sized bird high in the blue sky. It appeared black, but when viewed from the ground, many a raptor looks black in silhouette against the sky. Yet my eyes told me that this bird was actually black, and so I thought . . . Is it a raven? His wings were long and held level, not in the dihedral (slight shallow V-shape angle) of a turkey vulture. And this bird flew alone in a steady course across the sky, sometimes flapping, sometimes soaring.

When I was about to concede that I couldn’t identify the bird, he did me a favor and repeatedly called out in a voice that carried clearly through the distance . . .

Cr-r-ruck …Cr-r-ruck…Cr-r-ruck…Cr-r-ruck!

(Listen and read about the many different calls of the Common Raven on Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s web site All About Birds.)

And so it was a raven, member of the family Corvidae, which includes the raven’s smaller “cousin,” the crow. Though not a raptor, the raven demands comparable respect. As large as many raptors, the raven has a wingspan of nearly four feet. And while the bird’s beak is not hooked like the raptor’s, it is stout, curved, and likened by some to a “bowie” knife. (Public Domain photo by Dave Menke.)

While these attributes of the Common Raven are imposing, I’m mostly impressed by the raven’s intelligence. (Edgar Allen Poe certainly held the bird in awe.) In fact the entirely family of Corvidae (crows, ravens, magpies, jays . . . to name just a few) is an intellectual bunch. Of course, I needn’t be told this since I’m witness to it everyday. For instance, a large flock of Blue Jays have taken siege of my property. In the morning, I no sooner stroll out of doors than the watching scouts cry out their report, “Chow’s on!” and dozens of jays come sailing from adjacent properties toward my own. Not only that, they take note of each new location where I attempt to hide black-oil sunflower seeds for my other winter residents. You can’t pull anything over on them.

Oh, yes, these days I've many of the Corvidae family visiting, mostly American Crows and now the Blue Jays. But I seldom get to see or hear the Common Raven. So I was quite tickled by his visit, even if only a flyover.

Till next time . . . Keep birds in your heart.

Georgia Anne