This moose represented many meals for the ravens, enough to keep them well-fed for many months. The project began one October many years ago when Heinrich observed a small group of ravens which had just located the carcass of a moose. Heinrich has a camp near Mount Blue where this research project is based. Bernd Heinrich of the University of Vermont.

The behavior of Common Ravens is winter has been the focus of a decades-long study by Dr. They must depend on coyotes and other scavengers to tear through the skin of a frozen animal. In the winter, when a dead animal is likely to be frozen, ravens have difficulty in opening the corpse to feed. As a result, ravens depend on carrion for most of their food. This association is perpetuated in Edgar Allen Poe’s well-known poem, “The Raven”.Īlthough the Common Raven is larger than a Red-tailed Hawk, ravens lack the strong bill and long, sharp talons to kill their own prey. Many early peoples associated the raven with death. The raven figures prominently in the folklore and mythology of many northern peoples. The black plumage and large size of these birds make them conspicuous birds, particularly in winter. The Common Raven is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, ranging from north of the Arctic Circle to the mountains of Central America. With a wingspan of more than four feet and a weight of three pounds, the Common Raven is the biggest perching bird in the world. We normally think of perching birds as small creatures like chickadees, goldfinches and sparrows.

All passerines have three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward, adapted to hold on to a branch or other support for perching. These massive birds belong to the perching birds or passerines, the largest order of the birds. One of the joys of Maine is seeing or hearing a Common Raven.

Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich