Risqué Ravens

Well, you just never know what you might see up on the mountain!

You may remember that I wrote last month about seeing a raven pair devoted to pre-nesting behaviour, with lots of beak play and mutual preening of feathers. I think we saw a different pair on this most recent trip (the male had an oval- shaped eye on one side) — but they were engaged in the same activities.

This female raven was also doing her best fledgling-begging-to-be-fed impression in order to solidly fix in her mate’s brain his future role as sole breadwinner (and bringer) when she’s stuck in the nest on egg-incubation duty.

They did the little “feed me” dance when several times.

The female, it seemed, was sufficiently impressed and convinced of her partner’s proficiency in this matter, because …

*** WARNING: R-Rated Raven Content Ahead ***

After one feeding ritual she bowed down, wiggled her tail and — well — Nature took it’s course!

I really couldn’t believe my luck to have witness this moment! In fifteen years of watching crows in my own neighbourhood, I’ve never seen them actually mating and never expected to see this briefest of brief interactions between a raven couple.

Having seen the female raven’s rumpled feathers right after “the act,” I now find myself looking rather knowingly at my local crows whenever I see one of them in a similarly unkempt state.

Female raven “en deshabille”

The male raven continued to preen and groom his mate because, of course, that ten second act was just the beginning of a long process that will test the trust and partnership between them for many weeks to come.

The loving raven couple with a sweeping view of Vancouver behind them

Our female raven is probably sitting on some newly-laid eggs right now and her well-trained mate is keeping her fed. Two to three weeks of incubating the eggs, and then both raven parents will share the work of keeping the hatchlings fed, guarded and clean, and Mom will be able to get out and about and feel the rush of wind under her wings again.

I’ve no idea where their nest is. As you can see in the video below, it could be almost anywhere!