Ravens Talking and Human Walking

Sound recording of a pair of Common Ravens calling to each other while a human listener plods through the woods some distance away on a property in Bath, New Hampshire. This sound was recorded using an iPhone 7. Common Ravens (Corvus corax) are known to exhibit a variety of calls, and can even learn and mimic the calls of other birds as well as the speech of humans. Here, two ravens engage in a correspondence using the "clicking" sound often displayed by dominant females and mated pairs at the nest. This behavior brings to mind the "victory songs" of Ethiopian Boubous. The duets between mated pairs of this species serve to strengthen the bond between mates, but also to announce that a confrontation has been won as a discouragement to other would-be intruders (Anastasi, 2017, p. 27). Perhaps these two ravens were trying to communicate to each other through the dense canopy near their nesting site. Incredibly intelligent and adaptable, Common Ravens thrive in a variety of habitats ranging from arid desert to high alpine tundra. Ravens were extirpated throughout much of their historical eastern range during the 1900s, but in recent decades their numbers have been recovering, especially in the Northeast. Perhaps generally considered somewhat "plain" songbirds, Common Ravens are anything but common in regards to their remarkable capacities of cognition. Linguist Derek Bickerton, interpreting the work of biologist Bernd Heinrich, stated that ravens are one of only four animals in the world, the others being humans, ants, and bees, that have demonstrated displacement, which is the ability to reference objects or events that are removed from that communication by space or time. Ravens have also demonstrated that they can solve complex problems such as raising food suspended from a string to their mouths by stepping on the loops of the string as they pull it up towards them. This kind of problem solving differs from a trial and error method, because it displays ravens' potential for understanding the nature of the task before them and inventing a solution uniquely suited for solving it. Armed with this knowledge of the Common Raven's abilities of insight and recognition, it might not be hard to imagine that the pair vocalizing in this recording, unbeknownst to the listener, were just as curious about him as he was of them.