A rarely photographed angle
This rear view of a (beggar) raven illustrates that, in the right light, their blackness is actually blueness. And see how neatly and functionally their different sizes and shapes of feathers are efficiently packed together when not deployed in flight.
At every pullout along Yellowstone's main roads there are one or several cheeky ravens that have learned to approach humans and look expectant through the reward of food handouts. Ravens are very intelligent and if they can get crackers and peanuts and god only knows, bologna sandwiches while expending very little energy to do so, they will.
The problem is that even though they are omnivores, their digestive and metabolic systems are not optimized to benefit from cheese crackers and potato chips. By being fed human food they become pests, stealing from picnickers and literally pecking holes into or unzipping packs on bicycles, motorcycles and snowmobiles to get at food. Their nonchalance around cars sets them up for being hit. And if they don't practice finding food naturally, they may lose the ability to do so, leaving them in the lurch when humans suddenly disappear from large parts of the park when the roads close in winter.
Photographed in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S.A.
A rarely photographed angle
This rear view of a (beggar) raven illustrates that, in the right light, their blackness is actually blueness. And see how neatly and functionally their different sizes and shapes of feathers are efficiently packed together when not deployed in flight.
At every pullout along Yellowstone's main roads there are one or several cheeky ravens that have learned to approach humans and look expectant through the reward of food handouts. Ravens are very intelligent and if they can get crackers and peanuts and god only knows, bologna sandwiches while expending very little energy to do so, they will.
The problem is that even though they are omnivores, their digestive and metabolic systems are not optimized to benefit from cheese crackers and potato chips. By being fed human food they become pests, stealing from picnickers and literally pecking holes into or unzipping packs on bicycles, motorcycles and snowmobiles to get at food. Their nonchalance around cars sets them up for being hit. And if they don't practice finding food naturally, they may lose the ability to do so, leaving them in the lurch when humans suddenly disappear from large parts of the park when the roads close in winter.
Photographed in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S.A.