Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ravens Are Smart

I could put raiding nests and hatchlings under scavageing, or better predacious scavenging. Not a lot of "hunting" going on there, but that's pretty nit-picky.

There is a white, not albino, one wintering in Anchorage. Or was. It was first spotted on the Kenai Peninsula last summer, but apparently moved up to Anchorage for better winter pickings. Probably won't return to the Kenai, but we will see, if it survives.

You can probably google up a pic of it.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2023/10/24/rare-white-raven-spotted-in-anchorage/

Hey! my first link. Probably last too!

That happens quite a bit around here. "Supposed" to be illegal to kill 'em, but I've never heard of it being pushed by LE.

Before the town got so close to us, ravens would steal golf balls at the course, and drop them on cross ties in the corrals and fence corners.
It got so bad, the pro started carrying a shotgun in a bag when he went around the course - and on the mower while mowing.
When I'd gather a couple dozen balls up, I'd take them back down there and return them (mostly range balls).
The course was just under a mile from our corrals.
I'd also occasionally find one out in the pasture, usually not too far from a rock.

Hard boiled "eggs".

A 100 year old bird? Had no idea they could live near that age.

So, you’re not a bird brain? 😏

Last August we were clearing a site to build a camp. Forested area on small lake, 6 miles from nearest hamlet, 20 miles or more from nearest golf course. A log we were dragging out gouged open a dirt mound and uncovered a golf ball. The site has never been cleared before. Ravens are common in the area, best guess is a raven found that ball somewhere and dropped it. Must have carried it for miles.

Me either, per ravens, but Macaw? parrots can live to be 150 or more, Bowhead whales to at least 70 (slate harpoon point found in a hsrvested big Bowhead in the 90's, off Barrow)

that is why there is a saying, all the dead ones are crows. most people don't know the difference between a crow and a raven.

https://chirpforbirds.com/bird-brain/13-surprising-and-spooky-raven-facts/

#1: Ravens are highly intelligent

As a part of the corvid bird family, which includes crows, ravens are large black birds with brains relatively big for their size. However, one difference between ravens and crows (other than the raven’s larger size) is that ravens are more intelligent. Nonetheless, all members of the corvid family have been known to craft and use tools, plan for the future, barter, and even play games like hide-and-seek.
#2: Ravens are excellent hunters

Often hunting in groups, ravens have been known to trap and kill prey twice their size. They will also hide their food from other predators, even other ravens. In fact, they often “pretend” to hide food in a safe place while another raven is watching—only to move the food cache to another location when unobserved!
#3: Ravens can mimic human voices


In fact, they are often even better at it than parrots! These intelligent birds can also mimic animal and bird calls as well as various “manmade” sounds like a toilet flushing or a car starting.
#4: Ravens gesture to communicate

From holding up objects of interest (typically a male mating ritual to lure a female) to “pointing” at things with their beaks, ravens have been elevated to a level of communication that, until recently, was observed solely in humans and apes.
#5: Ravens can live anywhere

Found in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, ravens can live in diverse environments ranging from urban areas and forests to high deserts and tundra.
#6: Ravens remember faces

Perhaps one of the most impressive, and unsettling, facts about ravens is that they have what is called “episodic memory,” much like humans and other primates. This allows them to remember human faces and other characteristics, particularly in association with an emotion or event, which leads to our next fact.
#7: Ravens have friends…and enemies

Ravens tend to prefer companionship with other ravens, particularly if they are relatives and of the opposite sex. But raven or human, don’t cheat them or they’ll remember—and probably won’t “work” with you again! In fact, ravens are known to hold grudges for up to one month after a sour experience!
#8: A group of ravens is called an “unkindness”

And if that isn’t spooky enough, other collective nouns for ravens include a “treachery” and a “conspiracy.”
#9: Ravens travel in gangs before pairing off


In their younger years, ravens travel in small flocks before pairing off—a sort of “Friends”-like meet-cute, only Ross and Rachel mate for life in this scenario.
#10: “The Raven” poem haunted Edgar Allan Poe


The iconic poem launched Poe from a virtual nobody to an overnight success, but his newfound popularity wasn’t always easy for the writer. Children were known to follow him through the streets, flapping their arms and croaking like the poem’s namesake. Poe’s response? Shouting “Nevermore!” at them until they ran away.
#11: Ravens are powerful symbols in lore

Often associated with death, illness, or a bad omen, ravens have been featured in ancient stories from around the world and in almost every culture. For example, Swedish folklore has it that ravens are the spirits of murdered people who weren’t given Christian burials. Irish folklore sees ravens as symbols of warfare, and the Hindu deity Shani is often visualized as mounted on the back of a giant raven.
#12: There are white ravens

These light-feathered birds are actually ravens with a rare pigment condition called leucism, which gives them their fair feathers and, oftentimes, blue eyes.
#13: The raven population is exploding


Over the past decade, there has been a steady and dramatic increase of ravens in North America. Of particular note is the Mojave Desert, which has reported a staggering 700 percent increase of the black birds over the past 40 years! While this is good news in the midst of a “bird crisis” in North America and Canada, which have collectively lost nearly three billion birds since 1970, this raven boom could spell trouble for the US population of desert tortoises, which are a favorite raven delicacy.

Way back a coworker set out to research predation rates on simulated sage grouse nests. The grouse were T&E candidates at the time, ravens were/are the primary nest raider, so interest was high, and the potential for a quick and easy publication was there.

Actual nests are usually very well cloistered beneath sagebrush, so he went out with my survey grade GPS equipped technician and dispersed a full case of chicken eggs tucked well under 80 or so sagebrush canopies across three sites. Plans were to do repeated counts across 4 subsequent two-day intervals. With their first assessment, he came back to my office livid that our GPS gear was absolute garbage, he had totally wasted his time and funds, and that he would hence forth lay out a 100-m tape and physically map his egg locations. They had not found a single nest/egg. I insisted on a repeat go around and went along to run the equipment.

This time we put a chunk of local rock on the opposite side of each egg site with a washer hidden beneath. Two days later, we were out again. We found every rock and washer and only a single egg that had been essentially tucked into a rodent burrow. On the way out we did a deviation to a cornering rock jack where we found a heaping stack of shattered eggshells. Same results with not a single egg at the next two sites and the remnants piled at nearby corner posts.

I suggested a rerun with a blind and observer to document the near instantaneous disappearance rate real time, but he abandoned the effort.

later trail cam monitoring of actual nests found hens incubating for all but the very moments of day when they would do a quick run to water.

Lessons learned: 1. Ravens don't miss much. 2. High end GPS units can get one right on the money every time.

What you are saying is that Raven GPS matches human teck. smile

Norm

Ravens have great eyesight, they could have been watching you, from a distance, hide the eggs then investigated.

Yes, on the eyesight. Years back I learned one should keep an eye on magpies while hunting. We used to frequent Hells Canyon for deer that would shade up midday in scattered brush patches. Magpies crossing from one ridge to another would frequently drop down and plow into the shrubs to peck at deer we had not seen. Same same for elk in open country.

Eagles, crows, ravens, magpies, hawks, vultures, and coyotes all keep a sharp eye on one another's doings. All of those also do an early AM look along our highways for nighttime roadkill.




We don't seem to have an issue with ravens and calving.

I've heard a raven will fly toward the sound of gunshot.

I’m glad we don’t have ravens in this country after reading all this, fun to watch, but could be hell on baby calf’s, Mexican vultures are here now with our red heads, patrol every day watching them, crows are everywhere, that’s enough. I have watched ravens in Alaska standing right next to eagles, they are just out of reach, you can tell the bald’s would pull the ravens head off in a second if he could just hook em, great horned, owls and crows, same thing.

Life span:

https://thebirdsworld.com/raven-lifespan/

Cool thread, had a pet crow as a kid, rescued it with a broken wing. It could talk, demand food, say hi, and a few other phrases. It would perch on my golden retriever and ride around on his back. Pretty funny pets, and definitely intelligent. It hung around for 3 years then started leaving in winter. Think it came back for two more summers afterwards then never saw it again.

The last two winters we've had a magpie that will fly over to the loader tractor every morning and watch for mice when I move round bales.