Richard Collins: The avian 'prince of darkness' is thriving

Ravens have fed on corpses at battlefields and an 'unkindness of ravens' is one collective noun for a group of these birds

A raven is technically a 'songbird' but its sounds are more typically croaks and grunts

Who will not change a raven for a dove? — Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

It is February and the raven, our largest songbird, has begun nesting. Its ominous croaks and grunts don’t exactly evoke the joys of spring, however... this is a bird of ill omen.

The raven may not be liked but it is respected. 

"It is better for a prince to be feared than to be loved", a saying ascribed erroneously to Machiavelli, comes to mind. This avian Prince of Darkness fed on corpses at execution sites and battlefields.

The death of Cúchulainn. Memorial to the Easter Rising by Oliver Sheppard.
GPO Dublin #Ireland pic.twitter.com/BCwWeJQ6ht

— Old Ireland (@OldeEire) January 24, 2017

Noah released a raven from the Ark. Odin, the Norse god, roamed far and wide with two pet ravens on his shoulders warning him of danger. Cú Chulainn, in Oliver Sheppard’s celebrated sculpture, has the faithful raven on his shoulder. The story that Charles II wanted the ravens removed from the Tower of London is probably apocryphal. When a series of misfortunes unfolded, the attempted evictions were abandoned. It is said that 'if the ravens leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall’. This bird has ‘class’ — you don’t mess with it.

A Yeoman Raven Master holds a raven at The Tower of London. Picture: Lara O'Shea.

‘Ravenous’, according to bird-name authority the late William Burley Lockwood, does not come from ‘raven’, an Old French term roughly meaning ‘rape and pillage’. He claimed that ‘raven’, as well as ‘crow’ and ‘rook’, are names of great antiquity. Derived from the bird’s harsh call, ‘raven’ goes all the way back to Indo-European, parent of most European languages and Sanskrit.

Bird populations are declining everywhere, but ravens are bucking the trend. They seem to be prospering. According to the Bird Atlas 2007-11, the species’ winter range has expanded by 79% in Ireland and Britain, and the breeding range has increased by 68%, since the 1970s.

Not persecuted as much as in the past, this giant crow has become slightly more civilised, expanding from its remote mountain and sea-cliff haunts into lowland pastures and forests. Quarries are now choice nesting locations as are trees, which were not much used in the past. Nor is the raven renaissance confined to these islands. Found throughout Europe Asia and North America, and with a foothold in North Africa, ravens seem to be doing well almost everywhere.

A Jack-of-all-trades gourmet, the raven takes any small animal it can catch, including rabbits, hares, seashore molluscs, and creepy-crawlies. It will harry a sick or injured victim, even of a species it doesn’t normally eat. The bird is "very unlikely to kill (a) healthy lamb" according to the authoritative Birds of the Western Palearctic, but "frequently takes afterbirths, also intestines of shot deer". Birds’ nests are raided but the raven’s forte is scavenging rather than hunting. Rubbish dumps are a favourite haunt.

Pairs tend to remain on their territories from year to year. Solitary birds, unlike their cousins the rooks and jackdaws, they may join flocks at roosting time. The collective noun is ‘unkindness’. Our young ravens disperse but don’t migrate. However, one ringed in Ireland visited Scotland and a Welsh-ringed bird turned up here.

About a third of fledged raven chicks die in their first year. Half of the survivors perish in their second. Once established on a breeding territory, however, a raven can hope to live into its late teens.