A Pair of Ravens! — Entry for Feathered Friends — Show Me A Photo Contest Round 280

We had unexpected guests this morning when a couple of ravens suddenly flew in and settled at the top of one of our fir trees.

This is my entry for the Feathered Friends - Show Me A Photo Contest Round 174 challenge organized by @nelinoeva in the Feathered Friends Community. Following this week's "free theme."

All photos by @labyrinths

Official entry photo:

It is not unusual for us to have lots of crows around here, but ravens are relatively rare visitors.

It also seems surprising that there even were ravens, given that ravens and crows typically don't get along.

The male has a thicker neck and feathered ruff

On many occasions we have seen flocks of crows chasing off ravens passing through our area, but the crows were evidently busy somewhere else because this pair of ravens enjoyed complete peace and quiet for the 20 minutes or so that they stayed.

Keeping a watch!

It was slightly foggy when they first showed up, but after 10-15 minutes the sun started to break through so you could really see their shiny black feathers.

The female was almost the same size, but much slimmer in the neck area

It was fascinating to listen to the amazing range of vocalizations they went through while sitting up there. While there was occasional outbursts that sounded like calls for a greater range, they were mostly purring, clucking and chattering at each other in fairly soft tones.

I'm pretty sure these two were a bonded pair although I am no expert on ravens... but they seemed very "familiar," and also spent a little while grooming each other. Sadly, there were no good photos of that because they were behind the branches.

The one I think was the male was a lot more vocal although they both seemed to have a lot to say about life!

At a distance, it can sometimes be tricky to tell the difference between ravens and crows but up close it is very clear how much larger ravens are.

All in all, they stayed at the top of the tree for a little more than 20 minutes after which they flew off to do their business somewhere else.

Not long after, the familiar sound of our local crows returned to the yard.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

All images are our own, unless otherwise credited!