Breeding season

At the moment there is intense acitivity in the aviaries. Breeding season has started.
We have two couples - the top ranked siblings Siden and Juno, and Rickard and None - who has been paired up like this since they were young. It can take between 2 and 7 years for ravens to start breeding, and hopefully it will take a few more years before our ravens begin. This spring, they will become two years old, and the activity going on seems to be more of training.

As Siden is the dominant male, he and his companion Juno are the ones building a nest. And they started out on a small platform put for this particular reason. I have to bring loads of twigs so they can choose whatever twigs they find appropriate. Yesterday I brought a big pile, and this morning almost every twig was gone.

 

Last week, it was extremely windy with winds up to 20 m/s, and I felt sorry for the busy couple trying to build a nest in such an exposed spot. So I decided to build a nestbox for them. As they had already started a nest, I wasn't sure if they would be at all interested. And it wasn't the easiest task to attach the rather heavy box close to the roof, almost blown of the ladder.

The next morning I was curious to see if they had dared to approach it, and this was what I found! Busy little bees had already started on a nest, and I was happy to see that they could get some better protection from the wind.

Siden, struggeling with a particularly difficult twig.

//Helena