Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures With Wolf-Birds Read Online Free Page A

preadapted to get by on little water, and the parents’ nest-hygiene chores are easier.

     
    Raven parents shove food deep down baby’s open gullet .
     
    Aside from the mutes that can be bothersome, young ravens are vociferous, and not very melodious for a so-called songbird. Ravens are unjustly accused of being poor or uncaring parents because their young beg for food so noisily. Although hunger increases the volume of their begging yells, that volume is itself a product of natural selection. The young may outshout each other in competition to gain parents’ attention, but the shouting also attracts predators. Ultimately, the upper volume of noise that evolution allows is capped by predation. If the nest is secure, the cap is high.
    In ravens and other birds, there has been tremendous selective pressure to grow fast and develop flying ability soon after birth. A sparrow can grow to full weight in a mere ten days, but in a raven, growth to maximum weight takes about forty days. Young ravens about a week old spend most of their time sleeping while being brooded by the female. They are still naked and unable to regulate their body temperature. They pop up their heads and beg whenever one of their parents gets up and makes short little nasal “ gro ” calls. Later, after the female no longer incubates them, they sleep, waking and begging whenever a parent flies toward the nest.

     
    LEFT : Recently hatched chick . RIGHT : About a week later, eyes still closed, pinfeathered .
     
    At about three weeks of age, when they feather out, there is constant stirring and nonstop activity. At any given moment, one young raven may be lying down and sleeping with its bill tucked into the feathers on its back, while another stands, stretching its legs and one wing at the same time, then perhaps reaching with one foot over its back to scratch the back of its head with a toenail. Another may stand on the rim of the nest, vigorously flapping its wings; a fourth may pick and yank at a loose stick, while a fifth is singing. The singer will have a dreamy vacant look about him, frequently fluffing out his head feather and erect “ear” and throat feathers. He’ll be acting like an adult male experiencing confidence and/or dominance. He’ll cock his head, half close his eyes, and utter queer gurgling, warbling calls that vary crazily in pitch and volume with no detectable rhythm. When a fly buzzes by, all are distracted. Heads shoot up and all watch the insect intently. Seconds later, activities resume. From a few seconds to a minute or so, each individual switches from stretching, preening, wing-flapping, sleeping, playing with sticks, and shaking. There is little indication that the activity of one bird has any influence on the activities of another.
    A human baby of the same age of six weeks cannot yet turn himself over, but he can almost hold his head up. If a human baby can’t reach the nipple, he gets lots of assistance. The baby ravens must hold their heads up high to beg for food from the day they hatch out of the egg. Those who don’t, won’t get fed. Baby ravens snatch mosquitos and black flies out of the air in a superb display of eye-bill coordination at only three weeks of age. Even before leaving the nest, they can pick up food and feed themselves, but they won’t do it if begging is an option. They can scratch the back of their head with one foot, sleep standing up, and groom themselves extensively.
     
     
    My four, which I had secured from two different nests, consisted of two males and two females.
    Even before they were out of the nest, the males were larger than the females. I called one of them “Goliath.” One of the females with a broken toenail on her left foot became “Lefty.” The other female waseventually dubbed “Houdi,” for the great magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, because she escaped from my aviary several times.
    By May 10, as the woods leafed out almost overnight, the ravens were