Ravens

Ravens are known around the world as shapeshifters and humans are often changed into ravens by an enemy's curse. They are prophets, spell-casters, and messengers of the gods. Gods and goddesses of war and thunder such as Badb have ravens as their attributes. They are early emblems of the Danes and the Vikings.

In spite of its dark appearance, the raven is often a solar symbol. In Greece he was sacred to Apollo, the god of light. In China, a three-legged raven lives in the sun. His legs symbolize dawn, noon, and dusk. There used to be ten sun-ravens but they gave off such intense light and heat that an archer had to shoot nine of them in order to preserve life on earth. A red raven is the emblem of the Chinese Chow dynasty.

Among the natives of the North American Pacific Coast, Raven is a hero, messenger, creator of the world, thief, and trickster. He taught the first humans how to care for themselves and make clothes, canoes, and houses. His position in Native American folklore is similar to that of the wily coyote. Some say he was born of the primordial darkness; others that he was born in the coffin of his dead mother and nourished on her entrails. He was a provident creator who brought sunlight, vegetation, animals, and the tides into the world for the benefit of humankind. He took the animals two by two onto a raft, after the manner of Noah, in order to save them from a great flood. After all the good he had done for humankind, Raven wished to marry a woman but the men refused to allow this. In revenge, Raven created mosquitoes from crushed leaves to pester them for all time. When Raven brought light to mankind, they were so frightened by it that they scattered to all corners of the world.

I have bundled these two together because they are both members of the corvidae family of birds. This family is widely considered the most intelligent of all birds. Crows top the avian IQ scale, which is a scientific test to determine bird intelligence. They can count, distinguish complex shapes, and perform observational learning tasks. Crows are extremely social creatures and will engage in mid-air jousting to establish pecking order. Wild hooded crows in Israel have learned to use bread crumbs as fish bait, thinking in advance and anticipating the catch. The New Caledonian Crow has been intensely studied because of its ability to use tools in its every day search for food. This includes creating knives which are cut from leaves and stalks of grass. They also use advanced plucking, smoothing, and bending of twigs and grass stems to produce a variety of food substances. Ravens are similar to crows, but larger in size. Both species are black in color and the main difference is in their vocalizations. Ravens perform many of the same behaviors as crows, but they have been recognized for their ability to drop nuts, clams, muscles, and shells on to the highway, wait for a car to run them over, and then gather the prize.