The Common Raven is one of our favorite birds. We enjoy seeing them when visiting the national parks in the west and when fishing in Minnesota and vacationing in northern Wisconsin. In those areas, ravens are very common, very vocal, and range over a large area.
Map showing locations where Common Ravens were identified during the Breeding Bird Atlas III (courtesy of eBird).
We also enjoy seeing ravens in Columbia County where they are uncommon, less vocal, and do not fly from horizon to horizon. We wrote a Common Raven Friday Feathered Feature in January 2020 highlighting the first one found during the Poynette Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Last weekend, friends stopped by our cabin near Rio and pointed out a raven. They mentioned that it had been years since they’d heard one even though they live only two miles away.
Ryan Brady, DNR Natural Heritage Conservation Biologist, wrote in the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology’s Badger Birder about the raven population in our state: “Numbers skyrocketed in south-central regions of Juneau and Adams to Sauk and Columbia counties.” Carl Schwartz, editor of the Badger Birder, asked us to prepare an article summarizing Common Raven observations in Columbia County beginning with the Breeding Bird Atlas II (2015–2019) through March 2023. This provided us the opportunity to reflect on the population of Common Ravens in our region over the past many years.
At the completion of Atlas II in 2019 Common Ravens were reported in 8 of the 85 atlas blocks in Columbia County. You can see from the graph below that the number of Common Raven sightings has been increasing, with reports from 15 new blocks. In 2019 Common Ravens were reported in 9% of the blocks, which increased to 27% by March 2023.
A graph documenting new blocks and total blocks in Columbia County where Common Ravens have been documented (graph by Graham Steinhauer/Madison Audubon).
Much of the southern and eastern areas of Columbia County were part of the Empire Prairie with few trees, which is typically considered poor habitat for ravens. Ravens are usually found in more wooded areas, and are starting to show up more in both suitable habitat and on the edge of suitable habitat and prairie. The rest the county is more wooded, Common Ravens have been reported at the DNR Poynette MacKenzie Center, Gibraltar Rock State Natural Area, Jamieson Park and Rowan Creek State Fishery Area west of Poynette, Lewiston Swamp (east of Wisconsin Dells), Pine Island State Wildlife Area, and Roelke Creek Fishery Area.
After the Breeding Bird Atlas II, birders in Columbia County have reported Common Ravens during the Christmas Bird Count, Annual Raptor Count, and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology annual field trip that begins at Goose Pond and tours birding hotspots within 12 miles. The most unusual sighting was by the Great Wisconsin Birdathon team led by Karen Etter Hale and Carl Schwartz who found a raven flying over Lodi, the southernmost record for Columbia County.
The latest area sighting for Common Ravens is at Madison Audubon’s Otsego Marsh, where volunteer Zachary Pickett arrived early for our March 2023 prairie planting. He observed a flyover of two ravens—a new bird on the Otsego Marsh eBird checklist! This was a special day at Otsego Marsh with both the first prairie planting and the first Common Raven observation.
At our cabin, we have recorded 10 raven observations each year in 2021 and 2022. March is a good time for us to observe Common Ravens since we spend many hours outside making maple syrup. There would probably be more raven observations in Columbia County if birders would look and listen a bit more closely when they see a large black bird (though often a crow) in the distance.
Looking at the eBird Common Raven data for Sauk County, we noticed a similar increase, especially in the Baraboo Hills and Devil’s Lake State Park. If you begin at Lake Michigan and go west in a line running through Columbia and Sauk counties, the largest concentration of Common Ravens is in Columbia and Sauk Counties until you reach Wyoming.
Thanks to everyone that enters eBird data. It will be interesting to track what happens to Common Raven numbers in the future.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
Cover image by Mick Thompson. A Common Raven with black feathers and bill perches on a rocky outcropping and calls out.
