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Northern Raven
Corvus corax | Raaf | Cuervo grande
The Raven is the largest songbird in the world, buzzard-sized and with the flight skills of a raptor. A displaying pair rolling and tumbling along a wooded ridge is one of the finest sights of early spring.
Voice
The contact call is a deep, resonant, far-carrying pruk-pruk, far lower and fuller than any crow. It also gives a bell-like klonk, a wooden rattle and soft guttural grunting near the nest. Most vocal from January to April, during the display flights.
Recording: Benjamin Mayer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Identification
All black with a blue-purple gloss, a heavy, deep bill with obvious nasal bristles, and shaggy throat feathers forming a beard. In flight the head projects far forward and the tail is wedge-shaped with a pointed centre. Wingbeats are slow and deep; it soars, tumbles and flies upside down. Juveniles are duller, with a shorter beard and bill.
Confusion species
Carrion Crow is clearly smaller, with a square-ended tail, a slimmer bill and a barking kraah. Rook shows a pointed pale bill base when adult, a peaked crown and loose, baggy thigh feathering. When in doubt, the combination of wedge tail and deep, clonking call settles it every time.
Habitat
Originally sea cliffs, mountain crags and old forest; nowadays also large woodland blocks on sandy soils, heathland, extensive farmland and even landfill sites. It needs a secure nest ledge, a rock face or a tall tree, plus enough carrion or waste within a wide radius.
Range and movements
Widespread from Iceland and Scandinavia to the Mediterranean; resident, with wandering immatures. In the Netherlands reintroduced from the 1970s, with strongholds on the Veluwe, in Drenthe and in Flevoland, and slowly spreading. In Spain common in mountains, dehesa and steppe, from the Picos de Europa to Andalucía.
- Resident
- Breeding (summer)
- Winter
- Passage
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
Where and when to look
From February to April watch over wooded ridges and steep edges on a clear, breezy morning, when pairs roll onto their backs in display. Learn the call first: in practice you hear almost every Raven before you see it. Also scan above landfills and fresh carcasses.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened (IUCN: Least Concern). After centuries of persecution the species is recovering across much of Europe and spreading into farmland and even city edges. Illegal killing, poisoned bait and disturbance at nest sites remain local problems.