Sergey Dereliev

Large corvid often associated with carrion, although it is a generalist omnivore. Raven has an extensive breeding distribution across the N hemisphere, from deserts to arctic regions. In W and N Europe, it breeds mainly along rocky coasts and in mountains, in E and C Europe also in lowlands. Mostly resident except in the far N.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		1170000-3570000,1720000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Northern Raven

The direction of the few recorded movements seems to be mostly random, as it is mainly local dispersal of immatures. Birds from the N appear to be more likely to move, but there are no distant recoveries that document this. There are hardly any recoveries beyond 500 km from the ringing site, so no evidence of a migration strategy. The only few inter-regional movements detected by ringing are between E and C Europe.

Recoveries by Condition for Northern Raven

There is a very obvious shift in recovery condition from birds found dead before 1961 (90%) to mainly metal and colour rings read in the field after 1990 (90%), with most recoveries in the late 1990s onwards.

Annual Movements for Northern Raven

No general movements detected from recoveries, although there are some winter movements of far N populations to the S. GPS tracking in Germany and France revealed huge distances moved regularly by immatures which flock at the main foraging sites - the composition of the foraging flocks continually changes as individuals constantly arrive and depart (Loretto et al. 2017, Marchand et al. 2018, Jiguet 2020).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Northern Raven

Dispersal by immatures is not structured among seasons. Some N Ravens escape severe winter conditions by moving S in Dec-Jan. There are differentcategories of recovery: birds ringed in late spring (Mar-Apr) and recovered at the same time of year; those generally moving short distances, which are likely natal and/or breeding dispersal and birds moving between the summer and the winter months.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Jiguet, F.2020 . The Fox and the Crow. A need to update pest control strategies. Perspectives. Biological Conservation article no.: 108693 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108693)
Loretto MC, Schuster R, Itty C, Marchand P, Genero F, Bugnyar, T2017 . Fission-fusion dynamics over large distances in raven non-breeders. Scientific Reports 7 article no.: 380
Marchand, P., Loretto, M., Henry, P., Duriez, O., Jiguet, F., Bugnyar, T., Itty, C.2018 . Relocations and one-time disturbance fail to sustainably disperse non-breeding common ravens Corvus corax due to homing behaviour and extensive home ranges. European Journal of Wildlife Research 64 article no.: 57 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-018-1217-7)

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