Raving about ravens

Many of us associate ravens with halloween, darkness and mythology. Here RSPB Scotland's Shona Morrison gives us an insight into these fascinating birds.

When you think of ravens, what are your initial thoughts?  Some people may think pests, some may think of them as shrewd, crafty characters.  Others, like me, think of them as beautiful, intelligent, capable birds.  The reason I have chosen to write about ravens is to let people know what an impressive, misunderstood bird the raven really is.  By the time you have finished reading this, I am hoping you may look at them in an entirely different light!

Ravens are large, jet black birds with thick bills.  They are the largest in the corvid family of birds, which include crows, jackdaws, rooks, jays and magpies, amongst others.  Their wingspan can reach almost five foot long.  Ravens are widespread in the northern hemisphere: they prefer forests or wooded areas but also enjoy living in coastal habitats, like they do here in the Isle of Lewis. 

The raven is an omnivore, meaning they will eat animals and plants.  They will eat nuts, berries and fruit.  Ravens also hunt small rodents, insects, bird eggs and will feed on animal carcasses.  Scavenging species play a vital part in nature: they prevent disease outbreaks and help in the recycling of nutrients in nature.  Can you imagine the roads and countryside if we didn’t have eagles, buzzards, crows, ravens and gulls to dispose of road kill and animals that have passed away naturally?  They are the binmen of nature and do a fine job of keeping the environment clean by disposing of all the animal carcasses.

Ravens begin to court when the birds are 2-3 years old and mate for life.  The female lays 3-7 eggs, she will incubate them for 18-21 days.  Chicks will fledge at 35-42 days old and will continue to be fed by the parents for up to 6 months.  Ravens are early breeders and it is not unusual for them to have a clutch of eggs in late February. They are excellent and acrobatic fliers on par with falcons and hawks. These aerial skills are on display during breeding season, when mating rituals include an elaborate dance of chases, dives, and rolls.  For me, when I see this, I feel that this heralds a sign that the much-awaited Spring is just around the corner.

Whilst out on a coastal walk recently, I went to an area where I knew ravens had been nesting when I was young (approximately 30 years ago).  To my astonishment, I found they are still using the same cliffs.  There are another two nests there now, so three in total.  Ravens break off sticks around three feet long and up to an inch thick from live plants to make up the nest base or scavenge sticks from old nests. These sticks are piled on the nest platform, then woven together into a basket.   I was filled with sadness and despair when I saw the amount of plastic, rope and old fencing the poor birds had been using as nest material.  This could cause all sorts of problems for the young chicks and adults, such as entanglement on their wings, necks or legs: natural materials wouldn’t cause those issues.

 One of three ravens nests with plastic showing

Ravens or “an fitheach” in Gaelic, figure heavily in mythology and folklore.  They were linked to darkness and death but were also a guardian at times.  Its presence at scenes of death link the bird with fear, maybe that is why people can look upon them unfavourably, maybe also because in mythology the raven was a mediator animal between life and death?  The Celts would see them often on the battlefield, where they were prime beneficiaries.  The Irish Goddess Morrigan had several different guises and a raven seen on the battle field was often thought to be her. Odin, the chief of the Norse Gods, was accompanied by a pair of ravens called Huginn and Muninn (meaning thought and memory) who whispered all the news that they could see and hear from their worldly travels, into his ear.  According to mythology, he finds out many new things this way, which is why he was called “Raven God”.

In the Old Testament in the Bible, the raven is the first bird sent to look for land out of the ark.  When Elijah was a fugitive in the wilderness, God supplied his basic needs by sending ravens with food.  They make an appearance in the Bible, not only as examples of Gods provision but also as messengers with Gods provision.  They are mentioned many times in the whole Bible.

Interestingly, it seems that the raven has played a central role in every culture that makes up our modern identity.  From the Romans to the Celts, to Vikings to William the Conquerors men who stormed ashore these islands in 1066 holding aloft raven banners.  Shakespeare even mentions ravens more than 50 times in his works, more than any other animal.

Ravens have officially resided in the Tower of London since 1630, when Charles II decreed there must always be at least six ravens there to ensure Britain’s safety.  Legend has it that should the ravens leave the Tower of London, great harm will befall Crown and Country.  A “Ravenmaster” was introduced in the 1960’s to look after the birds.  They feed them and keep their flight feathers regularly trimmed to prevent them flying away. They eat 170g of raw meat a day and are given blood-soaked biscuits.  In 2018 the towers oldest raven, also called Munnin, passed away, she was 22!  In the wild the average life span is 10 years, which shows you how well looked after they are.  She came to the tower in 1995 after being caught in North Uist.  Most of the current ravens in the tower come from raven breeders.                      

 Image above and main image by Cliff Reddick

According to a National Geographic article in 2018, it claims that ravens and crows are the smartest birds and are known to outsmart children and apes!  Birds make good use of their small brains by packing in lots of neurons, more so than mammals.  Ravens can pre plan tasks.  In a simple experiment, scientists taught a raven how a tool can help them access a piece of food.  When offered a selection of objects 24 hours later, the ravens selected that specific tool again, showing not only excellent problem-solving abilities when accessing the food with the tool, but good memory as well.  In almost identical experiments on four-year-old children the ravens were technically more successful in planning ahead to open the reward box with the food than toddlers.  Monkeys also have not been able to solve tasks like this yet.  If a raven knows another raven is watching it hide its food, it will pretend to put the food in one place whilst really hiding it in another!

Ravens have also been known to “play dead”.  This is what one raven did recently, when Maggie our local SSPCA inspector, went to assist it.  She got a report of a starving, weak, fledgling raven.  When she went to pick it up, it played dead to avoid being picked up!  Maggie fed it and looked after it for two weeks, then released it happily back into the wild. 

In captivity, ravens can learn to talk better than some parrots.  They can also mimic other noises such as animals and bird calls.  They have even been known to imitate wolves or foxes to attract them to break open a carcass.  Once the wolf or fox is done, the ravens get the left overs.

With this years lock down due to Covid, we seem to have taken more notice of nature around us.  When you hear the “gronking” call of a raven sitting on a fence post or tumbling in the sky with its mate, now you know as much as you do about them, will you look at them in the same way again?  Sinister and sneaky or intelligent and playful?  You decide!