Reflections on Ravens

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One of my favorite things about living in Arivaca is hearing Raven sounds: the whoosh-whoosh of their wing-beats that can be heard from far away and far below, their Pterodactyl-like low, gurgling croaks, and much more.

A year ago when my husband and I first moved here, a pair of Ravens would swoop down through the trees in the wash below our house at sunset every day, just like clockwork.   After spending a little time flying back and forth, they would always end up perched in one particular Mesquite tree together.  Then the two of them would make low, soft croaks and bill-clacking sounds back and forth to one another for 5-10 minutes before settling in to roost for the night.  We looked forward to their nighttime ritual and it became part of our own, so were sad when they moved on to roost elsewhere.

This winter, we’ve been seeing a lot of amazing Raven aerial maneuvers on walks through the Cienega or just from our front yard.  Pairs, or sometimes 3-7 Ravens, doing acrobatic turns and rolls, often barely but purposefully touching their wingtips with one another, and occasionally even flying upside down.  Considering how “serious” these birds can look and sound (as apparently Edgar Allan Poe thought), it’s really cool to know how light-hearted and playful they can be.

Chihuahuan Raven
Recently as we were walking back home from Saturday market-day shopping, I heard two different sounds coming from one of the large Aleppo Pines next to the Human Resources building, and stopped to investigate.  One was a distinct knocking call, and the other sounded like the purring call of a Wild Turkey that I used to hear in Southern Indiana!  However, Wild Turkeys are not known to be in this part of the state, nor do they typically perch high in a tree.  As I got closer, I could see two Ravens sitting close together on a high branch, having a “conversation”, with one making the knocking sound and the other the high purring sound.  What a trip!

After returning home, I looked on my favorite bird website, Cornell University’s www.allaboutbirds.org, and found out that it’s always the female Ravens who make that knocking sound, but I couldn’t find any reference to the purring sound.  However, Ravens can also mimic the sounds of many other birds, and can fly up to 100 miles in a day, so perhaps the “purring” response to the female’s knocking call was the result of encounters with Wild Turkeys in Mexico, Northern Arizona or New Mexico.  I wonder if it impressed the female as much as it impressed me….

Ravens are well-known to be one of the most intelligent birds on the planet, constantly surprising research scientists… as well as folks like me!


Photo credits:
Raven in flight by C.O. Peterson,  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Chihuahuan Raven by Quinn Dombrowski,  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Raven head by Stephen C. Dickson,  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

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