A letter by the fowl of the month:
Expensive Audubon Southwest,
I’m honored to be chosen because the October fowl of the month. It appears my years of doing mid-air flips and spins to catch your consideration have lastly paid off. I’m not the one Common Raven that’s been executing flawless aerial acrobatics—one in every of my colleagues just lately flew upside-down for over half a mile to point out off for a gaggle of birders. Honestly, these antics are extra to impress mates than birders, however both method, I’m happy that we, the Frequent Ravens, are getting the eye we deserve.
Ravens have lived alongside people for millennia. We’re extremely adaptable and opportunistic birds that reap the benefits of the advantages human society gives us—not the least of which is any meals that you just throw out! As I perceive it, we’re additionally fairly fashionable within the artwork and folklore of human cultures around the globe. Personally, I choose the depictions of our species as sensible, artful songbirds moderately than darkish and ominous harbingers of doom. In any case, we’re one of many smartest species on the planet! I do in no way perceive what that poet Edgar Allen Poe meant by, “…grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous fowl of yore…”
Sure, it’s true that Frequent Ravens regularly feed on carrion, however this doesn’t imply we’re evil! We’re omnivores, consuming vegetation and meat. Our food regimen options a wide range of meals, together with bugs, rodents, eggs, berries, and typically leftover French fries out of your dumpster. I’ve mates who’ve memorized the looking patterns of gray wolves to make a straightforward meal of what’s left behind after a kill. “Work smarter, not tougher,” they at all times say.
My companion and I regularly hunt and scavenge collectively, and typically I distract different birds whereas she steals eggs from their nest. She and I’ve been collectively for almost eight years now. We made our house on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the place we get pleasure from people-watching and allopreening (grooming one another) in our nest aloft a ponderosa pine.
Flying over the canyon, I usually marvel concerning the destiny of its delicately balanced ecosystem. Issues usually are not the identical right here as they had been for Frequent Ravens 50 years in the past. Invasive plant species like tamarisk (salt cedar) have unfold and choked river corridors all through the Southwest, sucking water from streams and forcing out native plant species that birds depend on for meals and shelter. Diminishing flows within the Colorado River, which alter the standard and temperature of its water, are endangering native fish species. A altering local weather is drying the soil and hindering snowfall throughout the Colorado River Basin. Though the inhabitants of Frequent Ravens is secure for now, species resembling my Corvid cousins, the Pinyon Jays, haven’t been so lucky.
The excellent news is that recent polling discovered almost all Arizona voters consider it’s important for federal and state officers to enhance water safety within the Colorado River Basin, the place my house is. To enhance Arizona’s total water outlook, we should proceed to put money into water tasks that increase provides and restore our watersheds utilizing a wide range of sources (together with native, state, federal, philanthropic, and company funding).
There are a lot of issues Frequent Ravens can do, however we are able to’t defend the Southwest from local weather change and habitat loss. We’d like your assist with that. Be a part of Audubon’s Western Water Action Network to obtain water information and motion alerts about points affecting birds nationwide. You may assist birds like me by utilizing your voice to weigh in on water administration choices that may form the way forward for western rivers and lakes, for the birds, wildlife, and those who rely on them. Thanks.
P.S. Generally we Ravens might be confused with crows, one other giant black perching fowl in the identical Corvus genius. You may brush up in your identification abilities with this information from my mates on the Audubon Journal: How to Tell a Raven from a Crow.
