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Common Ravens often associate in large flocks during the fall and winter months. It’s not uncommon to encounter a hundred or more of these big birds hanging out together. I’ve been told that these flocks consist mostly of young ravens. The adults, mates for life, tend to stay together in pairs, whereas the younger birds are more social.
Recently, I found a large flock of ravens gathered in an agricultural field. With one exception, the birds were on the ground, scattered over a field that was several acres in size. The exception was a single raven that perched atop a nearly dead Cottonwood at one edge of the field.
Ravens are extremely wary birds and they generally fly before I can train my lens on them. I had little hope of photographing this raven but I thought I’d give it a try. I allowed my vehicle to coast to a stop about 30 meters from the tree and ever so carefully poked my camera out of the vehicle’s open window. To my surprise, the raven stayed put.
The raven eyed me for a few seconds as I began photographing it. Then, it started to vocalize. Over and over again, for several minutes, it uttered cawing sounds interspersed with other vocalizations. Occasionally, it would stare directly at me and then resume vocalizing.
The raven kept this up for several minutes as I observed it. It clearly knew that I was there. It didn’t seem to be particularly upset by my presence but it definitely was watching me. After a few minutes it took flight, landed on a nearby utility pole, and resumed vocalizing.
What was this bird’s story? I don’t think that it was talking to me but I’m quite certain that it was talking about me. Ravens are extremely intelligent. One of these birds has the intellectual capacity — and at least the curiosity — of a three or four year old child. They are also highly communicative. Researchers long ago concluded that ravens’ vocalizations are a kind of language and that these birds can communicate a lot of information with their calls. My guess is that this raven was “talking” to ravens perched on the ground in the general vicinity of where it was perched and was probably telling them what I was doing. Perhaps it was saying something in the nature of: “he’s still parked here, he’s sticking that thing out of the window, but he’s not a threat, so far.”
The more I observe and photograph wildlife the more I realize that birds and animals are far more intelligent and perceptive than most of us assume. With ravens, especially, I’ve learned that I’m dealing with something extraordinary.
Image made with a Canon R5, Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 IS L zoom lens+Canon RF 1.4x telextender, M setting (auto ISO), ISO 2000, f10 @ 1/2000, +1 2/3 stops exposure compensation.
Sonoran Images 