Interior decoration

A few days with nice weather, and the couple decided to go for the outdoor nest. This is what it looked like this morning. They seem quite happy with the construction and have started to focus on the lining. Old grass, dried weeds and other soft materials are of interest. I tried to supply them with various things, like hay and horse fur, but just before night fall I found the perfect lining material- small pieces of hemp string that I fluffed up.

Juno was thrilled, and picked up every single piece I offered through the mesh of the aviary. Interestingly, she seems to be solely in charge of the interior decoration - pulling away strings of hemp from Sidens beak and flies off to do her thing. How I wonder what the nest looks like from the inside.

//Helena

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

Visit to Bavaria

Christian, Berenika, Auguste, Hugo, Mathias and Ivo

Last week we went to Bavaria in Germany to visit Auguste von Bayern and her research group. She works mostly with jackdaws (Corvus monedula) and New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) which are housed in number of outdoor aviaries in Leutstetten. The New Caledonian crow is endemic to The New Caledonian islands and is famous for its tool-use and abilitiy to solve sophisticated cognitive tests. We only met the crows briefly, but I was totally mesmarized by their soft and endearing calls.

The last common ancester of ravens and New Caledonian crows lived 12 million years ago, which is about twice as long as the last common ancester of humans and chimpanzees (6 mya). An interesting perspective, as I would think that most people (myself included) quite often think of different species of crow birds as "just crow birds".

//Helena

Top bird

Rickard submissively backing away from Siden

This week we have some constuction work going on next to the aviaries, so the ravens have some time off from training. But as soon as I came out they all fly down to see what funny or edible stuff I might bring today. And all birds want to be first. At times like this, it's good to be the top bird; you just walk around, looking hard and strong, and the other birds immediately retreat  - all fluff and bows.
If you are the undisputed dominant bird, it seems as if little aggression is needed to keep the others off. Just look how effectively Siden (silver ring) shoos away all other birds but his sister Juno (orange ring) - just by walking around in a certain manner.

//Helena

Above zero!

When I came out to the ravens to do some training sessions just before lunch, all birds were perching on the highest branch. Nobody seemed at all interested to come down to me, which is very unusal, unless they are afraid of something. Not even Siden and Juno paid me any attention what so ever. Hrmm. A quick glance around the aviary immediately solved the mystery. The bathtub which I had un-iced and filled with water just an hour ago was totally emtpy! And a second glance at the ravens confirmed my suspicions - they had all taken a bath! And of course, this is the first day above zero  (2,3 Celcius) in two weeks so who could blame them!

A picture from the summer

During the summer, the ravens bathe at least once a day, but in the winter they seem content with taking snow baths. We have also noticed that they eat at lot of snow, and sometimes they even seem to prefer that instead of fresh water. But when the temperature rises above zero after a long period of coldness - the situation apparently calls for a bath in the tub!
//Helena

Great day

Today was a great day, in several aspects. First of all, the weather was superb - one of these sunny winter days with blue sky and almost no wind. The other good thing was that the ravens seemed to agree with me. In our experience, raven-mood also change with weather, and on sunny, calm days they are easygoing and joyful.

Yesterday, I had left a selection board close to the net, hoping that the ravens should get enough used to it to not make a fuss of it today. And this time, the plan worked. As soon as I came out, Siden and Juno expectantly flew down, waiting for me to put some items on the board. Hopefully one of the items would be a frolic. All the other birds were equally cooperative and today I actually managed to sparate all birds but Gulan (who is the only bird who won't come down to us), and get them to select items from the board. With one exception, that is. Hans was still not in the mood for work and immediately started with his content, purring display sounds.

The runway that connects the two aviaries.

King of the aviary

Today my plan was to train the ravens to be separated. When they were younger this was almost impossible as they they got very scared when left alone in either of the aviaries, and we stopped trying. Now, the situation is sometimes quite the opposite - they seem like it too much! Especially the low ranked birds seem to enjoy the moment of solitude - beeing king or queen of the aviary for a moment - with no dominant bird setting the rules. When this happens, they totally ignore me, fly off to perch somewhere and start to display.

Hans in a typical raven display posture

 And the display is magnificent, both the impressive body posture with the chin feathers all fluffed, and the charachteristic sounds, leaving nobody in doubt of who's in charge - at the moment.
So this is what happened today. Hans, ranked as number three out of four males, came down to retrieve one frolic, stuffed it securely away in his pouch, and then flew off to enjoy his moment.

//Helena