Ravens

     The first raven I heard and saw was at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in southeastern Pennsylvania one afternoon during an autumn several years ago.  I heard it croaking before I saw it flying just above the trees along the wooded Kittitinny Ridge.  Like all ravens, it had a characteristically wedge-shaped tail.  That raven's hoarse croaking, to me, was a cry from the wilderness. 
     Common or American crows, fish crows and common ravens live permanently in southeastern Pennsylvania.  And another race of common crows that breed in Canada spend the winter here.  These species of the crow family help make this area, particularly its farmland, more interesting and exciting the year around.
     But ravens are the most intriguing member of their family in this region because they are not abundant here, but live more commonly in wilder habitats than what is in southeastern Pennsylvania.  We people think of them as birds of wilderness, which they are.  But they are adapting to less than wilderness conditions, and that is the most impressive and interesting part of them. 
     Ravens live throughout much of the northern hemisphere.  They are adaptable and live in forested mountains, prairies, tundra areas, certain cities and other habitats.  They were once all over North America, but were pushed out of many areas by habitat loss due to agriculture, shooting and poisoning.  They have strongholds in wilder places in North America, and are now adapting to less than wild conditions, including here in overly-civilized southeastern Pennsylvania, much to the joy of some of its citizens.
     Ravens are the largest members of the crow/jay family, the biggest branch of perching or song birds.  And like their relatives, ravens are bold, playful and clever.  But they are already more hawk-like in build, habits and flight than their crow relatives.  They do more soaring than their crow cousins do.  And to reduce competition for food with crows, ravens turn more to scavenging like vultures and hunting prey like hawks than their crow relatives do, which made them what they are today- more hawk-like than crows.  It makes one wonder how many trials led to extinction before ravens could come as far as they have to being hawk-like.  
     But ravens are a species in progress.  They are not altogether like hawks.  They have the urge for killing prey, but don't totally have all the equipment to do it more efficiently and quickly.  They have long, heavy beaks, but those bills are not curved or sharp enough for more easily tearing off chunks of meat.  They have eight claws on two feet, but those claws could be stronger and sharper for quicker killing before the intended victims get away.  Probably, in time, if ravens continue to hunt and scavenge, their beaks and claws will become ever more hawk-like.  As centuries roll by, ravens with the best killing equipment will live long enough to reproduce.  Ravens probably are hawks in the making.  They are a species progressing, but not a finished product.  In the future, ravens may be efficient competitors of certain hawk species.  
     But more than having the physical equipment to subdue prey animals for food, ravens have intelligence and a capacity for problem solving.  They are always opportunists, looking for any chance of getting food everywhere they may be.  They even work together at times to procure sustenance.  One raven, for example pesters a nesting bird until that bird leaves its nest, whereupon the raven partner grabs the vulnerable eggs or young.
     Ravens are about two years old, or more, when they are old enough to raise young, and they pair for life.  They build stick, twig and grass nurseries that are about four feet in diameter and two feet high near the tops of tall trees, on power towers and bridges, or in indentations in cliffs sheltered by a rock overhang,  all of which hawks do.  They may also nest on the rock cliffs of abandoned quarries, as some kinds of hawks and vultures already do.                
     Ravens are moving into southeastern Pennsylvania.  Their population here is steadily increasing as some pairs of them are nesting here.  Through protection and their own adaptations, the wild and exciting ravens are making a comeback, as are bald eagles and peregrine falcons, raptors that were once down and out before recovering under protection from the law.