There are around 120 species of crow-like birds in the family Corvidae.  In Australia, there are five species, including the Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides).  I just love to observe these beautiful and intelligent birds.

Crows and ravens have the biggest brain to body weight ratio of all birds.  The hippocampus, which is associated with spatial memory and problem-solving, is particularly well developed.  Crows and ravens are at least as intelligent as the great apes, and have developed tools to access food.  In Australia, one of their favourite activities is to patrol the roadside several times a day to feast on any roadkill.  Juveniles, which haven’t learnt proper road sense, sometime become roadkill themselves, but it hardly ever happens to adult birds.  They look very haughty when they step away from certain collision just in the nick of time.

Are you a fan of ravens and crows as well?

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

For Ragtag Daily Prompt — Orgulous; and Bird Of The Day.
Information sourced from The Conversation article, “Stone the crows! Could corvids be Australia’s smartest export?” by Stephen Debus.

58 thoughts on “Raven Mad”

  5. They are wonderful 🙂
    A programme on ABC radio a few years ago interviewed a researcher who was studying ravens.
    They were given tasks similar to those given to chimpanzees and mastered them in about a tenth of the time as the primates, one has to respect that kind of intelligence. Personally, I think some time in the future, it will be determined that Humankind is just one of a vast population of sentient beings on this little planet of ours.

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    1. That is astounding, Jenny, but I can believe it. Some have been trained as spies. Today
      I watched a raven pick up something squirmy. It was probably something bitey as well, because the bird proceeded to squash its quarry to death by repeatedly stomping on it. They seem rather smarter than us.
      BTW, the ACT Government has just legislated dogs as sentient beings. That must be a first!

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  6. Here there are three types of road Ravens. The new nervous ones who fly off when a car approaches, the nonchalant ones who just walk off and my favourite, the joyous Raven who skips off the road as a car approaches 🙂

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      1. They are about the size of large crows. From what I’ve witnessed, they are generally solitary, but on occasion I have seen three or four, usually riding thermals.

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    1. Thank you, Xenia. I’m surprised how popular the ravens are. It seems people have been keeping their love a secret. 🙂 Btw, I thought you had left for your holiday so I didn’t leave a comment on your most recent posts. Have a lovely time. I hope the weather is kind to you.

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      1. You’re very welcome Tracy. Ravens are very popular here and I’ve written a few poems for them over the years. Thank you for the good wishes – I’ll be off-line for most of the week and will swing by to read when I can 🙂💜 xxx

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    1. Yes, same family. I love the Currawong too. They do get a bad rap though for raiding the nests of smaller birds for protein. However, that is only when they are raising chicks themselves. They are quite vocal at the moment. It is lovely to hear.

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    1. Thank you for the information. I went and read a few stories. They differ slightly but they all have in common that the crow is the bringer of light to the north. Wonderful. The raven/crow is also sacred to the First Nation people of Australia.

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      1. In my new post about the Inuit their raven mythology is explained shortly together with an artwork named “Raven’s Earth”, a stonecut hanging also in my apppartment at Berlin. Nice weekend @ Ulli

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  11. Love, love, love the Raven! It is my favourite bird. They are so smart!! We are traveling through northern BC and I am so enjoying them. When we lived in the north we would put out the fish heads for them. They used to have fun teasing my dog, getting him to run from one end of the garden to the other. Friends came out of a store to see a raven flying off with one of their grocery bags from the back of the truck!! All kinds of raven stories. I was thinking about writing about them for VJs weekly challenge this week on language!

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      1. It is going well. After driving 2000 km we are now in Prince Rupert and tomorrow we’ll be on the ferry to Haida Gwaii. We’re staying in off the grid cabins there, so I’m not sure I’ll get much of chance to post, but you never know!

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      3. I know. I worry for them, too, and as much as I want to be “out there” have also the feeling that they have had a hard winter and plenty of other people are fucking with their world. It’s a conundrum…

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  16. I don’t really like them, Tracy, tho I seem to be on my own in this opinion, and I know they’re extremely intelligent, which I respect. I remember them on the roads on our way to Broken Hill, doing what I know ravens do, but they gave me the creeps. I don’t care for Currawongs either as they scare so many other birds away from my garden.

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  17. There’s so much lore about these birds, and if you observe them, it’s no wonder. They are smart and clever. Also, raucous and messy, and they keep other birds away, not the best neighbors. However, a few weeks every spring, the beautiful peregrine falcons roost in our trees and the ravens depart for other locales.

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  18. Ah the raven, not quite blessed with a choral voice, but clever, strategic and wily. If I was out with the 22 they’d fly a wide berth, but if I pointed a broom stick they knew!!

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  19. Of course I am! They’re so clever, funny and beautiful! Yours especially with those bright blue eyes! I love watching them opening walnuts in autumn and winter – they fly high up in the air and then let them drop on the tarmac.

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