Common ravens are very important in native cultures throughout their range. Raven is a common and important mythic creature in western Native American traditions.
Common ravens are very vocal animals, with a diverse suite of calls and non-vocal sounds for different purposes and social contexts. From 15 to 33 categories of vocalizations have been described in this species. There are alarm calls, comfort sounds, chase calls, and calls designed for advertising territories. Common ravens may be able to mimic sounds of other animals but this has not been unambiguously documented. It is also possible that they are simply capable of a huge diversity of sounds and innovation enough to create calls that sound like those of others. Young birds engage in vocal play, in which they seemingly go through their entire repertoire of sounds, pitches, and volumes for minutes or hours at a time. Non vocal sounds include wing whistles and bill snapping.
Common ravens also communicate with physical displays of either threat or appeasement to subordinate and dominant ravens. Territorial pairs chase intruders for several kilometers and may engage in aerial fights. Tactile cues via allopreening are also used. Common ravens perceive their environment through vision, some chemical cues, tactile, and auditory stimuli.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Common ravens have been persecuted by humans for allegedly preying on lambs and crops. They are often shot, poisoned, or captured in traps. Ravens have been killed on a local scale in order to protect other endangered species programs, such as the programs to protect desert tortoises and sandhill cranes, where ravens were implicated in predation on those animals. In some parts of their range, common ravens have been extirpated but some populations are becoming re-established.
US Migratory Bird Act: protected
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Common ravens sometimes eat crops such as grains, nuts, and fruits, and have been accused of killing or maiming small livestock. They may also negatively affect conservation efforts aimed at desert tortoises, sandhill cranes, and California condors.
Negative Impacts: crop pest
Common ravens eat carrion, which helps by removing dead animals that may harbor diseases.
Common ravens consume carrion, thereby helping in nutrient cycling. They are also important predators of arthropods, mammals, and birds in the ecosystems in which they live.
Common ravens are mainly scavengers. They eat a wide array of animal foods, including arthropods, amphibians, small mammals, birds, reptiles, and carrion. They are attracted to carrion and eat also the insects that feed on carrion (chiefly on maggots and beetles). They are also known to eat the afterbirth of ewes and other large mammals. Vegetable foods include grains, acorns, fruits, and buds. Stomach analyses show that the diet is made up primarily of mammalian flesh, followed by insects and birds. Common ravens take their food from the ground and will store foods of all kinds, including nuts, bones, eggs, and meat. Young ravens begin to experiment with caching edible and non-edible objects soon after leaving the nest.
Animal Foods: birds; mammals; amphibians; reptiles; eggs; carrion ; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Plant Foods: seeds, grains, and nuts; fruit
Foraging Behavior: stores or caches food
Primary Diet: carnivore (Scavenger )
Common ravens are one of the most widespread, naturally occurring birds worldwide. They are found in northern Europe, the British Isles, Greenland (mainly coastal areas), Iceland, northern Scandinavia, east through central Asia to the Pacific Ocean and south to the Himalayas and northwestern India, Iranian region and near east, northwestern Africa and the Canary Islands, and North and Central America as far south as Nicaragua.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native ); palearctic (Native ); oriental (Native ); neotropical (Native )
Other Geographic Terms: holarctic
Common ravens prefer open landscapes, such as treeless tundra, seacoasts, open riverbanks, rocky cliffs, mountain forests, plains, deserts, and scrubby woodlands. However, these ravens can be found in most types of habitats except for rainforests. Common ravens in North America tend to be found in wild areas, whereas their cousins, common crows tend to be found in areas more affected by human habitation. In some parts of their range they have become quite habituated to humans and can be found in urban areas.
Common ravens generally roost on cliff ledges or in large trees but have also established nests on power-lines, in urban areas, and on billboards, to name only a few.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: tundra ; taiga ; desert or dune ; savanna or grassland ; chaparral ; forest ; scrub forest ; mountains
A wild raven was recorded living for 13 years and 4 months. Captive birds may live much longer, one captive individual was recorded to have lived 80 years and captives at the Tower of London in England live for 44 years or more. Probably most common ravens die during their first few years of life.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 13 (high) years.
Range lifespan
Status: captivity: >44 (high) years.
Typical lifespan
Status: captivity: 44 (high) years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 206 months.
Common ravens are large, black birds with a wedge-shaped tail. They have a well-developed ruff of feathers on the throat, which are called 'hackles' and are used often social communication. These are the largest passerines. Adults reach up to 69 cm in length and from 689 to 1625 grams in weight. They are generally distinguished from other Corvus species by their large size, more wedge-shaped tail, robust bill, a tendency to soar and glide, and their frequent, harsh, croaking calls. The sexes are generally alike, although females may be smaller.
Range mass: 689 to 1625 g.
Range length: 69 (high) cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Average basal metabolic rate: 5.5656 W.
Common ravens are rarely observed being preyed on, even as eggs or young in the nest. Predators on nestlings may include large hawks and eagles, other ravens, owls, and martens. Golden eagles, great horned owls, and coyotes have been observed attacking nests and fledglings. Adults are usually successful at defending their young and will vigorously chase predators away. Adults are wary of approaching novel kinds of carrion and new situations and will often only approach after the presence of blue jays and American crows makes it clear that no danger is near.
Known Predators:
There is little information on when or how pair formation occurs. Displays occur between individuals throughout the year, some of which may be courtship. These displays are most intense in the fall and winter. There is evidence that pairs stay together throughout the year but no concrete evidence that mating occurrs for life. Females invite copulation by crouching slightly or opening, extending, or drooping their wings and shaking or quivering a slightly raised tail.
Mating System: monogamous
Breeding and egg laying occurs between mid-February and late May, though most clutches are started in March or April. Breeding season varies by region and by the length of the winter. Usually 3 to 7 eggs are laid per nest and incubated for 20 to 25 days. Nests are made mostly of sticks, are asymmetrical, and measure 40 to 153 cm diameter by 20 to 61 cm high at the base and 22 to 40 cm diameter by 13 to 15 cm deep in the cup. Young leave the nest between 5 and 7 weeks of age. They may then leave the area, and their family, within a week or may remain with the parents for a more extended period of time. Sexual maturity is reached at about 3 years of age.
Breeding interval: Common ravens breed once yearly.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs in lmid-February through May.
Range eggs per season: 3 to 7.
Range time to hatching: 20 to 25 days.
Range time to independence: 5 to 7 weeks.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 3 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 3 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Average eggs per season: 5.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 1095 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 1095 days.
Females exclusively incubate the eggs but both parents care for the young once they have hatched.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement; altricial ; pre-fertilization (Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female); post-independence association with parents; extended period of juvenile learning
