Three’s Company

Well looky here! Three gangly baby ravens that squawk like wild monkeys have made their way to VINS for care.

Watch a video of these giant babies in action!

A few days ago, loggers in Danville, VT cut down a tree, not knowing a raven’s nest full of three babies rested upon the high branches. Fortunately, the loggers were compassionate fellows who felt they had to do right by the baby corvids. They called VINS Wildlife Services department for help.

While renesting baby birds is always the best option (meaning placing the babies in the nest back into a tree for the parents to take care of), in this case it wasn’t possible. Most of the trees had been cleared from this particular patch of forest, and the few trees left were so tall that renesting would’ve required a professional tree climber or crane of some sort. Plus the loggers had more clearing to do in the area, so the likelihood of the parents returning to the nest after all that disruption and continuing noise were slim.

The ravens are now in our care, where they’re fed hourly by trained staff. To keep these smart birds from imprinting (recognizing humans as their food source and associating themselves with humans), we wear a mask over our faces when feeding them, and gloves on our hands. Eventually, we will place them near our exhibit ravens who live here at VINS so that the young ravens can observe adult raven behavior.

We’ll keep these loud, funny babies with us until they are flying and ready to venture forth into the wild on their own.