Raven In The Rain

by Theresa Tahara

Title

Raven In The Rain

Artist

Theresa Tahara

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

I didn't realize this Raven was soaking wet from a recent downpour until I looked at the photograph on my computer. You can click on him to use the preview box to see how wet they were. Texture added.

Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore ~Edgar Allan Poe. (A bit of a cliche now but there seems to be a lack of poems about Ravens.)
Common Ravens can live up to 21 years in the wild, a lifespan exceeded among passerines by only a few Australasian species such as the Satin Bowerbird and probably the Lyrebirds. Young birds may travel in flocks but later mate for life, with each mated pair defending a territory.

Intelligence: Linguist Derek Bickerton, building on the work of Bernd Heinrich, has recently argued that Ravens are one of only four known animals (the others being bees, ants, and humans) who have demonstrated displacement, the capacity to communicate about objects or events that are distant in space or time from the communication. Young, unmated Common Ravens roost together at night, but usually forage alone during the day. However, when one discovers a large carcass guarded by a pair of adult Ravens, he will return to the roost and communicate his find. The next day, a flock of young Ravens will fly to the carcass, and chase off the adults. Bickerton argues that the advent of linguistic displacement was perhaps the most important event in the evolution of human language, and that Ravens are the only other vertebrate to share this with humans ~ Wikipedia.

Uploaded

May 30th, 2013

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