First Confirmed Nebraska Breeding Record of the Common Raven (Corvus corax) since the 19th Century

Authors

• Eugene A. Huryn, University of Nebraska at Kearney
• Jacob C. Cooper, University of Nebraska at Kearney

Date of this Version

9-2025

Document Type

Article

Citation

Nebraska Bird Review, volume 93, number 3, September 2025, pp. 118–123

Comments

Published by the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, Inc.

Abstract

In Nebraska, the Common Raven was likely widespread prior to 1900, being codistributed with the American Bison (Bison bison). Records in this time are spotty, but consistent. Thomas Say reported a nearly fledged brood—the only confirmed breeding record in this period—at Fort Calhoun in Washington County on May 12, 1820. A Common Raven was collected at Fort Randall, on the Missouri River just north of the modern Nebraska–South Dakota border, in the fall of 1857 during the Lieutenant Warren Expeditions. Another specimen, now lost, was collected by J. B. Hasty in 1899 in Arapahoe, Furnas County. Bruner et al. (1904) describes the species as “formerly frequent” in Nebraska but rare as early as 1877, with one of the last records from interior Nebraska consisting of a specimen from Kearney, Buffalo County, in 1900. There is a paucity of confirmed records of the Common Raven from 1900 through 2021, when Kathy DeLara reported Common Ravens south of Harrison, Sioux County. From this sighting on, there have been a number of reports, likely consisting of four or five pairs or family groups, in the western Panhandle. This surge in sightings fits with the increasing population trends in the species across the last few decades. In the South Central Semiarid Prairies, of which the Nebraska Panhandle is a part, Common Ravens are 5.7 times as abundant in 2018 as they were in 1966 per BBS data, with the trend accelerating exponentially. The trend becomes far more pronounced when one looks at Common Raven abundance across the whole Great Plains, with the species becoming 23.4 times more abundant across the same timescale, also increasing exponentially.

However, there had been no confirmation of breeding of Common Ravens in Nebraska until 2025. On the morning of June 14, Eugene A. Huryn (EAH) found 4 fledgling ravens sitting on an abandoned railroad trestle bridge at 42.68, –103.99, roughly 5.5 miles west of Harrison, Sioux County. The fledglings were fully feathered and blue eyed, and had bills with pink bases, particularly visible on the lower mandible. The fledglings were active, and at multiple points EAH could see their flight feathers – particularly their tails – as they explored the trestle’s support beams. These flight feathers, especially the inner rectrices, were not fully developed. As EAH watched, an adult raven flew in and deposited food on the bridge, before taking off and settling on a fence post a few hundred yards distant. The fledglings appeared to be roughly 6 weeks old, based on plumage, flight feather development, proximity to nest, and exploratory “flying” behavior.

. . .

The re-expansion of such a charismatic and gregarious species into a region in which it was once abundant is an exciting prospect. However, Nebraska’s ecology has changed tremendously since ravens were extirpated, and the niche they once inhabited – feeding on American Bison – is no longer present. As such, they may not expand beyond the Nebraska Panhandle without adapting to exploit other food sources. That being said, a sighting of a Common Raven on Lake McConaughy, Keith County, in February 2024 raises interesting questions regarding winter dispersal, suitable habitat, and potential future expansion. The Common Raven is an extreme habitat generalist, and so identifying expected habitats in Nebraska may be difficult. Ravens have been known to frequently patrol roadways for roadkill and be more closely associated with human settlements where food is scarce. Attention should also be paid to the subjects of raven predation and scavenging, to see if an outsized impact on at-risk species is observed.