Russell Rogers wrote re ravens: "They will eat anything that they can
catch...."

I would add that they will eat anything they can *cache.*

All corvids, at least high-latitude ones, are cachers. They are constantly
on the lookout for storable food materials (obviously mostly plant matter)
that they can hide and later, during more difficult times, find and eat.
Clark's Nutcrackers and Gray and Steller's jays cache seeds, but I'll have
to admit I don't know what ravens way up in the mountains might cache.
Watch any corvid around here, and you'll see it pick up food items and
carry them away. Several species have enlarged throats to carry food, and
Gray Jays even secrete saliva to glue their food pieces to branches.

As others wrote, ravens (as all corvids) are very cognizant of
human-provided food sources, and they are really long-distance foragers.
Flocks of hundreds have been seen around a few dumps in northeastern WA,
and they visit most of the garbage dumps in this region, along with crows.
They are road-kill junkies, and you see them a lot just sailing along
highways, watching for splatted animals of any size. A Corvus just gliding
steadily along a highway almost anywhere is sure to be a raven rather than
a crow.

It has always surprised me that this species appears to be comfortable
living in cities about down to Bellingham in this area, but not farther
south. Which of our tweeters have ravens living in their cities?
Certainly not in Seattle or Tacoma.

Well, the fire alarm is going off in this virtually deserted building, so
I'll sign off.

Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416