Ravens are highly intelligent and adaptable birds found across diverse landscapes in the Northern Hemisphere. Their remarkable success stems partly from their omnivorous diet, allowing them to thrive in various environments, from arid deserts to the Arctic tundra. This varied diet highlights their opportunistic nature and ability to utilize available resources.
Primary Dietary Components
Ravens primarily consume animal matter, but their omnivorous diet means they eat almost anything they can find. Carrion forms a significant part of their diet, especially during colder months when other food sources are scarce. They often scavenge on animal carcasses, including those left by predators, roadkill, or animals that died naturally, though they typically require the skin to be broken by other means to access the flesh of large animals.
Beyond carrion, ravens actively hunt and consume a variety of invertebrates, such as insects like locusts, butterflies, moths, ants, scorpions, snails, and slugs. They also prey on small vertebrates, including rodents like mice and rats, lizards, frogs, and occasionally small mammals like rabbits. Birds are also part of their diet, as ravens will opportunistically raid nests for eggs and nestlings, and can even catch live adult birds.
Plant matter contributes to their diverse diet, encompassing fruits, berries, grains, and nuts. Specific examples include figs, cherries, cranberries, prickly pear fruits, corn, wheat, barley, oats, and tree nuts like pecans and pistachios.
In areas with human populations, ravens readily consume human-associated foods like scraps, garbage, and pet food, often foraging at landfills and along highways.
Dietary Flexibility and Seasonal Changes
Ravens adapt their diet based on food availability and seasonal shifts. Their opportunistic nature allows them to exploit whatever resources are most abundant in their environment at any given time, a key factor in their widespread global distribution and success.
During warmer months, such as spring and summer, ravens frequently consume insects and reptiles, which are more plentiful. This period also sees an increase in their predation on nestlings and eggs as young birds are abundant and vulnerable. In contrast, winter months necessitate a greater reliance on carrion, as fresh plant matter and live prey become scarcer.
Ravens in urban areas often incorporate human food waste, foraging at landfills and roadsides. In wilderness settings, their diet consists more heavily of carrion from large predators’ kills, insects, and wild plant materials.
Foraging Strategies
Ravens employ diverse and intelligent strategies to acquire their varied diet. As efficient scavengers, they actively search for carrion, sometimes following large predators like wolves to access their kills. Ravens can consume and hoard a significant amount of food from a carcass, with individuals capable of ingesting up to 2 kilograms per day. They are often among the first to arrive at kill sites, sometimes even alerting wolves to the presence of prey.
Hunting is another method ravens use, particularly for smaller prey. They can catch insects in flight and will pursue small mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Ravens have been observed cooperatively hunting, with one bird distracting prey while another seizes it. They locate food by observing other animals, including humans, or by responding to auditory cues like distress calls or gunshots.
Caching, or hiding excess food, is a common behavior, especially for fatty items that can be stored for later consumption. Ravens cache food in various locations, including moss, snow, leaves, soil, and even within trees near their nests. They exhibit complex cognitive abilities related to caching, such as remembering cache locations and even anticipating theft by other ravens, sometimes hiding food when rivals are observing.
Foods to Avoid
While ravens are highly adaptable omnivores, certain human foods and substances can be harmful to them. Feeding wild birds, including ravens, processed human foods like bread, crackers, or chips offers minimal nutritional value and can lead to malnutrition. These items can fill a bird’s stomach without providing the essential nutrients needed for their active metabolism.
Some human foods contain compounds that are toxic or unhealthy for birds. Avocado, for example, contains persin, which can cause respiratory distress, heart damage, and even death in many bird species. Chocolate, containing caffeine and theobromine, is also toxic and can lead to increased heart rate, hyperactivity, seizures, or death.
Salty foods, like salted peanuts or crisps, can cause dehydration, kidney failure, and be fatal due to a bird’s sensitivity to high sodium levels. Other problematic items include fruit pits and seeds from apples, pears, cherries, peaches, and plums, as these contain varying levels of cyanide compounds that can be harmful. Dairy products, such as milk, are not digestible by birds and can cause stomach upset and diarrhea.