How Smart Are Australia's Ravens? 

No shit, I saw a bunch of ravens playing soccer in a Maccas carpark once while I was eating lunch. They'd found a little ball in a happy meal box, and were literally kicking it around with each other just for fun. Smart buggers.

I remember one of my first days in Australia I witnessed a raven jump a pigeon, claw it's wings apart and stuff it's injured body under a car tire. Love this country.

In central Australia ravens live in large family groups. These family groups are so organised that they will only have one mother lay eggs at a time and the family will raise the chicks together.

The fact that the name for the Raven in the mythology is 'Waa' is just perfect. Like if they named a Dog 'Bark' or a Cat 'Meow'.

The ravens were one of the highlights of visiting Rottnest Island for me. I had my breakfast stolen by a classic misdirection by a combined quokka/raven heist team. Quokka jumped onto the seat next to me and distracted me with cuteness and the raven swooped in and stole my breakfast, much to the amusement of everyone within a 10m radius.

The amount of metaphors for ravens and crows here is impressive!

Australia, where even the animals have accents. Jokes aside this was very informative

ive always characterized our crow's calls as "someone getting a massage thats just a bit too hard"

Melbourne being depicted as city 17 made me burst out in raucous laughter

My two Australian Ravens are Eddie and Allie...named after E.A. Poe. They know their names, hand signals and certainly the word "food". They fly down from their domain atop an enormous cypress pine just behind my house for their daily feast of chicken necks. Allie sings to me. Eddie does that "wail" to me, so I'm guessing that only the males do that. Never heard Allie make that sound in the six years they've been here.

I've always described the call of the Australian Raven as "imagine a bird doing a Bob Hawke impression"

Aww yes! Another backyard naturalist video. I used to have a landlord who loves feeding lorikeets and cockatoos and he made me more appreciative of the Australian nature when I was indifferent before. Now with your videos my appreciation is even more 🐦🕊

I'll be "raven" and "crowing" about this video for ages. An absolute treat!

I observed an interesting behaviour in one raven. It was up on top of my double story house and looked down before saying ‘faarrrrk.’ Naturally I assumed this meant he/she was afraid of heights.

My uncle had a hobby farm in the Adelaide hills. Ravens used to harass his sheep so he would shoot them with his rifle when they were settled. However they figured out the rifle shape pretty quickly so he painted a broom stick black and brought that out but the didn’t fly away because even from 100m away they could tell it was different. Very smart birds.

Love Ravens! They even have Pub trees here where they gather in groups at sunset and caw at each other, like they are catching up over a drink, lol. The most eerie experience with them that I saw was when I was at Uni and around 300 Little Ravens were sitting around on all the trees, building roofs, railings, just cawing and staring down at everyone walking by. People were really nervous. Another time I gave one a few hot chips from lunch, which the bird loved and then flew off, only to bring back about 6 of its family to join in a few minutes later. I didn't have enough chips for that! Cheeky birds!

they are just such amazing birds. So cheeky and so funny. Those stories cracked me up. Stealing bin liners, unzipping back packs, taking out drones, smashing windows with golf balls... lol. They are so funny.

My mum hates the noise these guys make, but i always thought their call makes them sound like they are being endlessly disappointed... I told her this and now she feels sorry for them haha

😁🥰Good day from Lismore, NSW.🌏 We have a family of Crows that comes down to feed in the backyard, along with Kooburras, Magiepies, Lokeets, and Minors, who come down to drink from two bird baths. The best time to catch them is in the morning and evening. I can see them from the bedroom window while typing on the computer.

I rescued a fledgling Crow this summer, during a heat wave. He's since been released but comes in every morning for some breakfast and to help me feed the chooks

Love our ravens. Bill Bailey said they called with a sarcastic tone. We have one in our tree that barks at the dogs.

Dude I love your content so much. Never have I been more interested in birds!! Also I really loved the inclusion of the Indigenous folklore! Please keep it up!

You are genuinely my favourite content creator at the moment. I love learning about our native flora and fauna, with chill aussie homour. Somehow makes it so much easier to absorb the information.

Ravens, the sound of an Aussie winter morning

Past week has been spent watching currawongs teaching the kids how to eat figs off my tree....

Going to a sheep farm, sometimes the sheep have trouble getting up and get stuck on one side. One of the sheep we found missing an eye because of a Maggie or Raven eating it.

Corvids are amazing characters. When you get to know a particular individual over a number of years you realize just how cunning and manipulative they can be. I had a pet crow as a teenager and it was a constant source of amazement. It always felt like having a person around. Always watching and calculating ... and stealing shiny things.

"Shedding our avocado-powered life-support system" is the most Melbourne metaphor for death I've ever heard.

Had to sub to your patreon asap, I think I was your first subscriber unless it hadn't updated haha. Your videos brighten my day when I see a new upload, keep up the good work! Would absolutely love to see a video on the willie wagtail, they are my favourite birds ❤

"I blame Sam Kekovich for radicalising our ravens" definitely my favourite, brand new sentence

I’ve been feeding a family of crows for a little while now, the parents & their 2 babies. They come everyday, & while they’re still very nervous & fly away at any sudden movement, they’re edging closer to me everyday ❤️ I’ve always loved crows so it’s been a really cool experience! I’ve also got a couple of families of rainbow lorikeets that visit everyday for some honey water - watching the babies babies beaks form over these past couple of months has been fascinating! I think they’re just about to get the boot though so I really hope they keep coming to visit!

I've been in Australia for a couple months and I just adore all the birds here, specially ravens! Your videos are so interesting and fun, thank you! Now I can understand better their behavior (and where the odd noises out there are coming from lol)

My masterful man, I adore your alliteration in this video

So love them. A couple visit me twice a day. Cannot help but feed them as they are so patient & just wait & wait.

"A Corvid must be cautious. The careening Commodore cares not whose carcass it crushes" has to be one of the best examples of Australian alliteration ever penned.

Love these guys …. Such an iconic sound & childhood memories. Had a family nest in our yard &was so much fun watching their antics

Was honestly expecting Currawong to be on this list. Was shocked that it wasn't lol. They are Strepera

There are two Ravens who live much of the time in out yard. Three big trees, a few small ones, a bit unkempt, they love it. Also a human or two who feed them from time to time. They trust us enough to rook their young here every year. Great birds. We also have a similar relationship with a small family of Magpies. The two species have a cantankerous relationship, but do mostly tolerate each other.

Every May, all the local ravens (and we're talking hundreds) congregate in a couple of large pine trees near Eltham in Melbourne, Australia, and have a 'meeting.' I call it the Ravenmoot. It's been happening for YEARS and is fascinating to watch. They all discuss and squabble about stuff, sometimes launching into the air in outrage over something, swirling around overhead a few times before resettling and continuing their 'meeting.' It goes for quite a while. An hour or more? Then they start peeling off in small groups of 3 or 4. Discussing territories mayhap? We have schools nearby, which are a source of endless scavenging, and personally have a pair who regard us and our house as their territory. They bring their new babies into our garden every Spring, and I ADORE them. They've even honoured us with baby-sitting duty more than once! 😍 (They steal eggs from our chooks, walking into the chook-house like they own it!) We also have a magpie couple who regard our house as their territory and have for YEARS, so we're very lucky! Sadly, the council chopped down the 2 big pine trees a month ago, so I'm not sure where the next Ravenmoot will be. 😒

Licorice Larks! Love it

1 Minute in and I already know you've gone hard in the paint for these precious buggers 👍

Mate i don't know what it is but your sense of humour just has me cackling out loud all the way through your videos, thank you so much for another corker!

I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoy these videos. They are so well done! Keep up the fantastic work!

Education though humour - just the best.

I get so excited when I see you've uploaded. Thank you!

I absolutely adore your vids. From the silly nicknames, to the information, to even just the editing, your videos are gems, and brighten my day every time you post. Stay safe❤❤❤❤

"Big thanks to The Cambrian Explosion" Why yes, I will refuse to acknowledge any further context to this.

Backyard naturalist has slowly become my new guilty pleasure channel. Watching someone "appreciate" birds the same way I do, with a unique Aussie twang makes my week!

The main corvid seen in western regional NSW is significantly larger than the ones I've seen when visiting Melbourne, I haven't seen them in inner Sydney. The ones I saw in Melbourne were smaller than a Magpie, the ones I get locally are quite large, like a magpie to one of them looks like a pee wee does to a magpie.

Another awesome video from the Alliterative Artisan, I mean Backyard Naturalist.

I’m an INTJ and I adore these birds

Love how you actually got a pic of Adelaide for reference. Very educational. 10/10

I love this series so much

Can we just appreciate the absolute poetry that is this man's script? "Gothic garbos" is literary genius. But seriously the entire video was full of alliteration and fancy names I love it.

Always struggled with identifying the different ravens and crows in aus. This is a huge help. Love this and the calls you included. I'm from the Adelaide hills and the sound of the little raven is so familiar. Used to have a breeding pair that lived in our yard for years. The confident one would come sit on the deck chair and pull my hair and clothes until I paid her attention and fresh meat. A good friend.

Great stuff. Informative and entertaining as always. Looking forward to the next one.

I grew up on a sheep farm and can confirm that the will kill lambs. During the drought we had a few years when the crows would sit and wait about 1 or 2 meters away for the mother to give birth and then dive in when she was still down. The little shits would know if you had a gun with you to fly away and if you didn't they would just sit there... mockingly.

There's only two places I tend to notice ravens, cemeteries and nowhere places where you think you just might get murdered by a nutter

Intj here! Hilarious and informative as usual. And good to know which i saw /heard in tassie!

Another Amazing video! You should do one about the brush turkey next.

It is interesting to see how you have incorporated our footage into your video. We have given permissions for the use of our footage a number of times and we normally get a notification or message when the video is published. We didn't get one this time so it was a pleasant surprise when I stumbled on it by accident. An informative video with a delightfully humorous take

My favourite birds! Thanks for making such a good video

this channel is fantastic... i have never been interested in any of this stuff until i started watching your vids... very engaging!!!! keep up the good work mate..

So, the Adelaide Crows should really be called the Ravens if I'm understanding this correctly.

I love these videos! They're a factual delight and a vocabulary lesson in one!

Have a pair of ravens that live at the bottom of my garden along with 6-7 magpies that look to me for food which comes in many forms especially leftovers or a frozen block of chicken casserole or stew. Took them less than 30 minutes to totally demolish a 500 ml block yesterday. Both species watch where I am in my home and there have been times when one or two maggies follow me inside. Will be giving them a bowl of chicken drumettes, mushrooms and assorted vegies around dawn when they start calling for room-service. Don't give them ham because of the additives but do share roast beef, pork and chicken loaf. When working in my garden a few get very close and swoop down from their perch to consume what I've revealed, especially when breaking down a compost heap. They are also partial to rice as are the common bronze-wing doves. They are good company as are the other birds and animals that visit including echidna, the common two possums and kangaroos. Think I've a somewhat resident red-bellied black snake, at least two types of skinks, frogs and nocturnal creatures that stay high up in the gum-trees, especially on hot, still summer nights with their reflective eyes giving away their presence.

Finally I know what species of corvid I'm hearing!

For indigenous stories about crows and ravens, I know of one that I think is from the Gubbi Gubbi people on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. It says that all birds used to be black, until one day a cockatoo (or maybe some other bird) had a pain in its foot. All the other birds came to help it except for the crow. One of them poked the foot of the cockatoo and colours shot out, giving all birds their unique colours and patterns. But because the crows weren’t there, they are still black. And they’re still annoyed by that, so that’s why they steal things. I think I messed up a few of the details but that’s basically how it goes.

Hilarious video mate! I feel you have to be truly Australian to appreciate the brilliance of this video.

Yes! another Backyard Naturalist video, and it's about CORVIDS 🔥

I never knew they had different length of calls. I’m going to listen more carefully now. Top video as always.

Thanks for all your videos

I live in Melbourne. My house mate fed some cheese to a corvid, happy smile on his face like that Justin Bieber meme, proclaiming that he's made a new (only?) friend. Well, he did, and it came back, and made a nuisance of itself around our back porch, picking through our stuff (the trash he leaves around outside mostly) and shitting everywhere. He then realised his mistake and started using the hose to scare the bird away, but it kept coming back most days for quite a while. He also said that "Nah," that's not the same bird he fed. He fed a crow, but the bird that was shitting over our porch and relocating the trash he didn't throw in the bin was actually a raven. To find out the difference, I then asked ChatGPT what the difference between a raven and a crow was, even though I knew my house mate was full of bird shit, but your video was way better. Like way, way better. Good content mate, cheers.

A few years ago some drone aircraft were being tested along the Brisbane river. The local ravens took umbrage with the noisey interlopers. These drones had pusher propellers on the rear. On the first day the ravens were making attacks from behind, and pulling out with loud alarm calls. The second day the attackes came from the front. This was reported in several International aircraft magazines.

Your word play is immaculate, my friend

I have a bunch of them here in WA, they are so smart! They get into my shed at night, drink all my beers and smoke all my cigarettes. The other day they started a huge bonfire in the front paddock whilst we were still on fire restrictions!! The ranger and my wife didn't believe me so I showed them your video.

When I was waiting for my bus once, a juvenile magpie was practising its calls by copying some crows across the road. That was very cute

Another great video about our aussie wildlife

when I was at school I saw no joke 35 crows topple a bin at a grade 7 eating area like a raid boss. Best english lesson ever.

Love reading the comments here, but just quietly this presentation of the channel is so good, I’ve learned so much because it’s quick, entertaining @ in my backyard (some of them 🎉) 🙏🙏🙏🙏

I remember finishing work at a large supermarket around midnight one night and walking out into an empty shopping centre car park absolutely covered in crows (that I'm now learning were actually ravens). I stopped counting at about 100 or so. On the trolley bays, across the parking lots, on the lamps, in the trees, atop the bins, perched on signs, everywhere. They weren't *doing* anything, just sort of hanging out. "Oh, that's not a portent of anything at all," I thought, walking slowly backwards to my car.

Another great high quality video as always ...I love your humour on our most inconic birds of Australia 😅 And that emu clip had me rolling with laughter and sorrow Cheeky buggers 😂

I like city 17 so much, I've made it my home. Thank you Melbourne.

Whoever wrote the narration is as smart as a corvid and about as entertaining as well. Very informative video. 😉

As a Melbournian, the Little Ravens are a very common sight. You see them at the beach, down the landfill or commercial composting site. You also see them near the local brothel too! (Don't ask how i know this😳) They are very intelligent birds who are also very timid. It honestly doesnt take much to spook one and it'll take off. They scavenge something chronic everyday, roadkill is a favourite of theirs I've just subscribed to your channel, narration is funny and great!. Can't wait to see more bird related videos!

Some years ago I rode the BMW up mount Buffalo Vic, when I arrived at the top carpark I noticed a few crows, walking around the track to the summit there were hundreds in the trees. It was a spooky time and I soon left the scene to them.

Mate your videos are amazing. I love this sort of content and it’s so interesting to watch! Keep it up man love ya work

I recall seeing a crow in a KFC parking lot that had stolen someone's fish and chips, carried it onto a car's bonnet and was using it as a dining table. It would've annoyed 2 people that day, but it made me chuckle.

"Avocado-powered life support systems" was phenomenal. 😂 I like to think of myself as knowledgeable about birds, especially these opportunistic flying undertakers, but I learnt so much from this video. Thanks!!

'The careening commodore cares not whose carcass it crushes.' A true poet

A fantastic mix of info, aussie humor and epic maymays. I salute your hard work sir

An excellent assessment of an underappreciated bird!

The raven footage of the drone is mine, and it was very helpful during lockdown. 😂

1:43 Out of all of those I think Canberra definitely had the most accurate image

I watched a bunch of noisy miners harassing a raven. Little did they know the raven they were going after was really just a decoy. I saw its mate flying in the opposite direction with an egg in its beak, a noisy miner egg no doubt.

The school I work at tells kids not to leave their lunch in their bag. The roof is littered with the treasure looted from those who ignored the warning. For non Aussies... Kids in Australia keep their school bag outside. Inside it is often a cooler bag, due to the extreme heat, which contains the lunchbox. They go through two zips and open a plastic container which often has 2-4 clasps to steal the polony and sauce sandwich... We went camping once and had to drive back without one of the cars as we lost the keys and get it towed. We notified the local rangers in case they found the keys. We jokingly said Search and Destroy, the two ravens around camp, had stolen them so the could go joyriding. We got a call two days later saying they found them in one of the ravens nests.

Super video

Would love an episode on Kookaburras!

love your videos mate!

I haven’t even got a minute and a half in and I’m laughing out loud and have to comment on the embedded stills -the capital cities killed me. I needed lols this morning and here are lols in abundance. Bless you, you dry witted naturalist.