The Common Raven is the big black bird croaking over Mt. Hood’s forests, ridges and timberline slopes in every season. Ravens are among the most intelligent birds studied. They learn by watching other animals, solve difficult problems, can keep track of numbers up to about seven, and young ravens are strongly drawn to new objects. They also seem to play, tumbling, rolling and looping through the air, especially in spring.
Ravens are thought to be monogamous. Pairs roost side by side all year, preen each other, and nest on cliff ledges or high in tall conifers, often adding sticks to the same nest season after season. They eat almost anything: carrion, small mammals, insects, frogs, the eggs and nestlings of other birds, grain and fruit. They follow other predators to carcasses and hide extra food, usually by burying it.
That flexible appetite brings them to campgrounds, trailheads and picnic areas, where they are quick to take unattended food and trash. Keeping food packed away helps keep them wild.
How to identify it
All black and glossy, 22 to 27 inches long with a wingspan near 4 feet, a heavy bill, shaggy throat feathers and a long, wedge-shaped tail that shows best in flight. It often soars, and its usual call is a deep, rolling croak.
Look-alikes
The American Crow is also all black but noticeably smaller, with a squared-off tail instead of the raven's wedge. Listen too: ravens give deep croaks.
Habitat
Everywhere on the mountain, from lowland forest to subalpine meadows and alpine ridges, and around campgrounds, trailheads and towns. It is common year-round.
Sightings in the forest
213 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 16, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →