CORVIDAE
COMMON RAVEN or NORTHERN RAVEN Corvus corax
Yin, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Metal
1921 1933 1945 1957 1969 1981 1993 2005 2017 2029
Acute, neat, meticulous, organized, self-assured, decisive, conservative, critical, perfectionist, alert, zealous, practical, scientific, responsible. Can be over zealous and critical, puritanical, egotistical, abrasive, proud, opinionated, given to empty bravado.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Corvus
Species: C. corax
Binomial name: Corvus corax
Description: Ravens are large black birds, with a blue-purple iridescence to their feathers.
Characteristics: Ravens - large black birds associated through history with mischief, darkness, and melancholia - are common throughout the old world and the new. Ravens have been associated by various cultures with different qualities. In popular western literature, they symbolize darkness, depression, and death (popularized in Edgar Allan Poe's poem, 'The Raven'). In medieval times they stood for virility. Among native cultures, Raven is the 'trickster' spirit, a popular totem, and the creator of man, who placed the Sun in the sky.
Length and weight: They are approximately 24-27 inches long at maturity, and their wingspan doubles that.
Color:
Behavior:
Body: The beak and feet are black, and the iris of the eye is brown. Young birds are less glossy than adults, but they lose the dullness when they reach maturity. Although they are frequently confused with crows, ravens differ in many ways. A raven's beak is larger and heavier than a crow's beak. Their throat feathers are more pointed and elongated, giving them a 'spiky' appearance when they fluff up. Crows' throat feathers, on the other hand, are rounded, like a semicircular fan. Most noticeably, their caw is much deeper than the crow's call, and much throatier. Also, a raven's call is more varied than the repetitive cawing of a crow.
Distribution: Ravens are a common sight in countries around the globe, and can survive in many different climates. They range from islands in the northern Arctic to deserts of North Africa, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coasts of North America. They can be found in England, in Mexico, in Turkey, and many other locations. Preferences vary with species, but most prefer wooded areas, especially along the coast and in the mountains.
An individual raven, or a nesting pair, will pick a territory around the nest which in which they forage for food. While it is flying within its territory, the raven is a friendly, unsuspicious bird. It is known to frequent human dwellings and farmsteads where it knows food will be left out for it. When it is nesting, however, the raven is wary and secretive.
Habitat: Ravens nest in single pairs (pairs which stay away from other nesting pairs). Evidence suggests that, once paired, ravens will remain mated for life. They build their nests on cliff ledges and cavities, or in trees. The nest is a mass of sticks and twigs, lined with grass and bark, and often with bits of string or other tidbits which caught the builder's eye.
Diet: Omnivorus: They will eat anything which is edible (and many things which aren't). Their usual diet contains insects, seeds, berries, carrion (the bodies of animals killed by creatures other than the raven), the eggs and young of other birds, and occasionally small mammals. When living near humans, ravens will also eat human garbage.
Reproduction: Within that nest, the female raven will lay 4 - 7 eggs, which are greenish, blotched with brown. Both parents incubate the eggs, and feed the hungry young. Young stay in the nest for approximately 6 - 10 weeks.
Predators:
http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/ravendoc.html#sn
Illustration by H. Douglas Pratt
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/birds-animals/perching-birds/raven_begs_scraps.htmlhttp://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/birds-animals/perching-birds/raven_begs_scraps.html
Omnivore
Average life span in the wild:13 years
Size: 24 to 26 in (61 to 66 cm); wingspan, 3.8 to 4.7 ft (1.2 to 1.4 m)
Weight: 2.3 lbs (1.3 kg)
Group name: Flock
Did you know? According to legend, if the ravens leave the Tower of London, the fortress and the British kingdom will fall.
Size relative to a tea cup:
