How to make friends with ravens

About two years ago, a pair of ravens began eating from my compost pile. I was very worried about this at first. Wile I adore corvids (one of my sons is named Corvus, after all), I had heard about ravens attacking poultry. I keep chickens, turkeys, and on occasion exotic fowl. I worried the ravens would attack my birds. Instead something miraculous happened…

Every time a Northern Goshawk, Bald Eagle or Osprey came along, my two ravens attacked it and chased it off. It was as if they said: “Hey, Bub, we’ve got a good thing going here and you aren’t going to fuck it up!” It’s absolutely beautiful when it happens. The raptor will come along, and out of NOWHERE, Huginn and Muninn (of course we named them after Odin’s ravens), will come flying and ATTACK the raptor. Adult ravens have no natural predators. And they sure as shit aren’t afraid of birds of prey. AT ALL. Every time this happens, I try to catch it on video and am never fast enough.

Unlike the urban ravens I feed when I’m in town, pictured above, the ravens of the deep taiga where I live never seemed to trust me. They never took to me, even though they seemed to take on the role of my poultry protectors. It took two years, and me actually offering them primo treats instead of just compost scraps, for them to tolerate me being anywhere near them. And even still, they are not “friendly” with me, but we have an understanding. They understand I give them offerings, and that I wish them no harm. They vocalize at me: “Kukulk. Kroot. Whomp.” I try to speak their language. They hang out when I walk outside now. Or go in my car. We “talk” (although I can only guess what my accent in raven must sound like). They remain wild, not tame, and that’s just as it is supposed to be. But they chase off the raptors, and they hang out with my sheep.

In conclusion, if you want to make friends with ravens, here’s how to do it: 1- have a compost pile, 2- be kind, 3- realize you now have corvid friends and feed them better treats.

If you want to contribute to bird conservation in Alaska, please consider donating to BirdTLC they rescue and rehabilitate wild birds and raptors that were injured in Alaska. If you find an injured bird, please contact Bird TLC for help.