International Crow and Raven Appreciation Day: Common Raven

The 27th April 2026 is International Crow and Raven Appreciation Day. To mark this, and the 350th anniversary of the publication of Francis Willughby’s Ornithologia, this post will focus on part of the description of the Common Raven in Ornithologia.

Willughby gave its common English name as the Raven and also knew it as Corvus. In 1758, Carl Linnaeus gave it the taxonomical binominal name of Corvus corax, by which name it is still known today.

The Raven in Francis Willughby's Ornithologia

The bird described in Ornithologia weighed two pounds two ounces (about 963g). Its length from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail was two feet one inch (about 63cm). The wingspan was 4 feet and half an inch (about 123cm).

It had large crooked claws, especially on the back toes. The bill was long, thick, sharp and very black. The upper mandible was somewhat hooked, but not as in hawks, the lower was straight. The iris of the eye consisted of a double circle, the exterior being of a light cinereous or ash colour, the interior of a dark cinereous. Today, it is known that the double colour is a mark of a juvenile because as the bird ages the iris becomes all dark.

Black hairs or bristles bent from the head downwards to cover the nostrils. The plumage was black all over the body, having a blue gloss, which was especially visible on the tail and wings. The belly was somewhat paler, inclining to brown. Today, it is known that this paler brownish belly is an indication that the feathers were old and about to moult. In Ornithologia, it was also written that the number of prime feathers in each wing was 20, of which the first was shorter than the second, the second than the third, and the third than the fourth, which was the longest of all. In all from the sixth to the eighteenth, the shaft extended further than the vanes and ended in a sharp point. The tail was about nine inches long (about 22.8cm), made up of twelve feathers, the exterior being gradually somewhat shorter than the interior.

Common Raven, 2008, by Fernando Losada Rodríguez, CC-BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Willughby and Ray wrote that they had seen one or two completely milk-white Ravens. Ulisse Aldrovandi had written that these white Ravens were commonly found in England, but they wrote that he was mistaken or misinformed. They did not know why the Ravens were white and had assumed it was due to how animals in snowy areas often had a whiter colouring. Today this is known to be caused by leucism and is a rare issue affecting about 1:30,000 Ravens.

In Ornithologia, it was stated that the Raven fed not only upon fruits and insects, but also upon the carcasses of beasts, birds, and fish. Moreover, it would set upon, kill and devour young lambs and living birds. It was thus caught and trained up for fowling by some, in the same manner as a hawk.

Ravens were found in all countries. They easily bore all changes of weather, fearing neither heat nor cold, and lived wherever there was plenty of meat for them. Though they were said to love solitude, they very often lived and built in the midst of the most populous cities. They built their nests in high trees or old towers at the beginning of March in England and sometimes sooner. They laid four, five and sometimes six eggs, which were of a pale greenish blue, full of black spots and lines.

Further Reading: John Ray, Francis Willughby's Ornithologia, 1678, p.121, T18.

Carl Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 10th edition, p105.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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