Animal Tracks - Raven (Corvus corax)

Ravens are corvids, relatives of crows. They are black birds that have large, heavy bills. These large birds are commonly heard calling in the forest. Some of their calls sound like screams. Other calls sound like deep croaks or hollow knocking sounds. Ravens have a variety of calls. Some of the calls don't sound like birds at all. Ravens will chase red-tailed hawks. I once saw two ravens chase a bald eagle away from a salmon carcass they were feeding on. The eagle was much bigger, but the ravens had larger numbers.
	This is the largest perching bird. They can be identified in flight by the wedge-shaped tail. The tail of a crow is more squared off than that of a raven. These intelligent birds will raid food left on camp tables, and usually eat whatever they can find. They will eat carrion, insects, small animals, and fish. They have been known to feed at garbage dumps. They also will readily get into trash cans and dumpsters. If food is left out, or if a bit of a garbage bag protrudes from under the lid, a raven will be able to pull it out. They are very intelligent this way.

These tracks show the structure of the raven's foot. The bottom of a raven foot has a granular or pebbly texture, similar to that of turkeys and other birds. This probably gives them some traction for gripping branches. Their toes have joints and are very flexible to allow them to grip things. The middle toe doesn't point exactly forward. It points inward slightly. You can use this feature to tell the raven's right track from its left track.

	Their tracks resemble very large Steller’s jay tracks, often up to four inches long. They show three toes facing forward and one toe facing backward. In loose sand, there is often a long drag mark left by the middle toe. Like other ground-dwelling birds, their prints are one after the other in a straight line. (Birds that are primarily tree-dwellers leave paired prints.)

Raven Scats
A scat from a raven. The whitish material is commonly found on bird scats.
	Raven scat and uric splatter. This was found on the edge of the river.
Raven scat with pebbles clinging to it. It was collected from a river bank where there was coarse sand and rock.
	A nice raven scat found on the river bank. Whitish material is uric material, commonly found in bird scat.


Raven scat coated with uric material

	Raven scat composed of unknown dietary material.

A raven scat with white uric material. Seeds are visible in this scat.


Raven tracks criss-crossing on the sand of a river bar.


Raven tracks in coarse sand along a river.

Two raven tracks. One from each foot. Note that the middle toe points toward the inside of the line of travel. The right foot's middle toe points to the left, and the left foot's middle toe points to the right.


A raven in flight. Notice the wedge shape to the tail. This helps you identify ravens vs. crows. Crow tails are straight across, not diamond or wedge shaped.


A raven perched atop an old snag tree. Ravens will often sit like this and call for a long time.


The raven's claw left a long drag mark ahead of this left foot track.


A pair of raven tracks found in sand. These two tracks came from different ravens though. Notice that the left and right feet are switched. This is because two birds walked past this same point, leaving side-by-side tracks. Trackers have to pay attention to the trails they are following because things like this happen a lot.


Another ravne track showing a long drag mark ahead of it from the claw.


A nice set of raven tracks showing the typical trail pattern. The long appearance of the claw is only due to dragging, not to the actual size of the claw!


A left raven track showing a drag mark from the hind claw.


This raven took its own photo when it walked past a trail camera mounted on a tree.