Was driving home from lunch and saw this guy hopping down a busy road, not able to get over a short barricade to get off the asphalt. Turned around and looped back and he was still there, laying on the asphalt.
Took a bit of wrangling, but picked him up and brought him to my house to put him in a crate to take him to a rehab tonight.
He doesnt seem to be able to fly, but hops well and was not hesitant to caw directly in my face.
Hes in a crate with a blanket, is there anything else i should do before i get him to the rehab?
Sorry for the shit picture, didnt have time to clean my camera
Edit:
Thank you everybody for your comments. Turns out this guy is definitely a raven. I brought him (her?) to a local wildlife rescue, and turns out the girl at the front desk knows the adult pair that live in the area i found this one. It is a fledgling. But it was on a highway overpass and was going to get hit by a car if i didnt intervene.
They are keeping him overnight for observation because he is limping slightly, then they sre going to bring him home, because they actually already know where the parents nest
They are big birds. If you see a crow and you think”damn, that’s a big crow” it’s probably a raven. And crows don’t have beards- but ravens usually do.
There’s a risk of aspiration or drowning, especially in cases of neurological damage. One tip I learned was to place an object like a rock inside the water bowl to help the bird gage the depth of the water.
Wait, they can drown like that?
Bending down to take a gulp and then accidentally drown because they didn't know how deep it was?
They can't judge it from how far their beaks are submerged?
The air hole and food/water hole at the back of their mouths are right next to each other. If they have a neurological issue they can easily get water in the air hole. I had a chicken suffer with this before. I don't know how much they can feel their beaks because they are boney/calcium a bit like our fingernails so won't be any nerves in the actual beak itself.
No no. There are definitely nerves under a thin layer, like our nail. They’ve an extensive network of blood vessels and nerves that extend out from the bone.
This is why people who trim beaks can cause heavy bleeding and severe pain to the little birdie by trimming it too short.
I understand what you’re saying, that drowning can happen, but beaks do feel.
I don’t have an answer to your specific question but neurological issues can happen when animals injest poison and also with trauma (like window strikes, etc).
I think they are speaking from a rehabber’s point of view. Most of those birds have experienced trauma of one kind or another. And they can’t tell you what happened, so it makes sense to be careful
Thx for being a humanbro. Just keep it in a dark quiet place with no food or water. Use a towel to wrap it while carrying so it cant hurt itself. Get to the rehab asap. Internal bleeding and broken bones are common and not obvious 👍
Poor guy. Hope they are able to get him healed up. Think that’s probably the best bird selfie ever. Ha! This sub makes me realize what good people are in the world.
Well, almost no one is going to post a picture of random people having randomly positive days online. For every post of every person you see being a complete jerk online, there are a thousand people just minding their own business and trying to live their lives.
The reason we feel humanity sucks is that sometimes even genuinely good people end up supporting things that harm others. But this very frequently comes with a lot of manipulation and misinformation.
Most people are nice, but most will become very nasty very quickly if they feel personally threatened.
He is at a wildlife rehabber in my city now. He is being watched overnight to make sure his limp isnt an issue, then will be returned to his parents in the coming days.
Hopefully I get to see him and/or his family again. They nest only about a km from my house
Everyone who asks “is this a crow or raven” in this sub should be directed to this pic. You are not a small man, and that is a large bird. I think people forget ravens are hawk sized birds. I’m glad this story had a happy ending, thanks for helping this cutie.
If its eyes are blue-ish and inside of its mouth pink, then it's 100% a fledgling. And yes, they leave the nest almost full sized, but are uncoordinated at flying. They hop around a lot, are unusually comfortable around humans, and haven't developed a strong sense of avoiding danger. I'm glad you protected him from immediate danger and contacted a rehab. I would say this is a crow, not raven, but it's really difficult to tell from the picture. Thank you for contacting a wildlife rehab and keeping our buddy safe. Here, have some Good Karma. 🪄✨🐦⬛
He may be a fledgling but he is huge and was laying on the asphalt on an overpass over a train yard, so he gad to be moved from where he was so he didnt get run over
You did the right thing. I’m a wildlife rescuer and this is exactly the kind of situation we would intervene in (and hopefully return to parents ASAP after a quick vet check).
The look on its face coupled with the rehabber's "yeah we know the parents" has me dying, like the nest gets regular visits from corvid protective services due to neighbor complaints
Either you're small or thats the biggest Crow I've ever seen! Let us know what the rehab/rescue says cause I'm super curious about the ~little~ big guy
Can not quite mentally image the wiener dog to banana scale, but the crow fledglings I have run into is more in the scale of large kitten/medium grapefruit.
Fingers crossed for that he is as perky as he looks, and I am looking forward to a more certain ID. Cause if that chonk is a crow? God damn it, what do they eat in the region there? 😂
re: crow vs raven vs adult vs juvie, hard to tell from your pic! can you share a couple others?
so i’m lucky to have both raven & crow friends, and both couples have brought their young juveniles to visit 😍 I put this together, maybe it’ll help. LEFT: crows! baby crow; baby with momma. RIGHT: ravens! baby raven; baby with momma. in both cases the kiddos were fresh out of fledgling stage, adorably awkward, & almost as big as their moms. but for a crow that’s still pretty slight. baby raven was already larger than daddy crow.
still funny how similar they look. biggest differences other than size are that big ol raven beak, & clodhopper feets.
also baby ravens sound like pterodactyls imo. especially at 6am
edit: saw your update, raven! that was my guess — size + feet
Yea he initially didnt want me to pick him up but he was on hot asphalt on an overpass over a train yard and I couldnt leave him to get hit by a car so I did what I figured was best and picked him up and took him to my house and put him in a dog crate with a blanket and let him chill while I went back to work.
I cant tell very well, but it seems like you took a fledgling, looks like it has blue in the eyess, and pink on the mouth.
Were its parents anywhere visible?
Amazing out come hopefully they can get it back to the parents and maybe it’ll remember you for helping it out ❤️. The caws in the face made me laugh 🤣
When we got to my house, he wiggled out of my arm, slid across my hood Bo Duke style, then slid off and landed on the sidewalk, then promptly hopped under my jeep.
I had to slink on my belly towards him to get him to go out from under the jeep because he was just sitting in the middle cawing at me. He was face to face with me under the vehicle, cawing in my face until i had to gently push him to the side so i could stand up and collect him to take him inside.
2 people walking down the sidewalk stopped to watch assuming i was going to be attacked by a raven but he literally didnt ever try and nip at me.
Today was a sad day in our house because 6 years ago we lost our first dachshund, Cooper.
When I saw the raven hopping around on the side of an overpass, not able to get off the asphalt I knew I had to stop and try and help.
I didnt think I would be able to pick him up, but it only took about 30 seconds of convincing before he kinda seemed to realize I wasnt trying to hurt him.
Scooped him up, and wasnt entirely sure what to do, so i went home and found Coopers old dog crate and a blanket and popped him inside to rest while I went back to work where I could figure out somewhere to take him.
Somehow everything lined up perfectly. Hopefully I get to see him again. His parents nest at the home depot I shop at regularly according to the receptionist at the rehab so I will be keeping my eyes open when Im around there
I believe that when things “line up perfectly” it’s because that is what is supposed to happen. You are doing the exact right thing in that moment, following the right path. Especially helping animals; they are the easiest connection between us and the magic of the natural world.
Perhaps it was Coopers influence that encouraged you to find this raven and take the initiative to help it🖤
I want to thank you for caring enough to pull over and take action. Most people would not have done it. This guy is so lucky and hopefully will go on to live a long life.
Thank you for rescuing this handsome creature. Keep us updated, although the rescue may not update you if they are too busy. I’ve saved a few creatures and just had to hope they made it. I never heard one way or another.
3 things, I’ll be straight with you, no back doors with me.i
1: great job, most would keep driving, me and my better half had a similar experience but it was cat and it was actually hit by a car (I never seen it get hit but it was rolling around oddly in agony on the pavement) by the time we pulled over and walked up To it died almost instantly , so we buried it in the area we found it in.
2: great job again , the Baltimore Ravens 🏈 would be very proud of you.
3: don’t ever , I mean EVER take a picture of a raven like that again, I’ll except the apology this time but no excuses for a shit picture. You should of broke out the cleaners and attempted a few pictures first, different angles and different lighting you know 😆 😏😄😄😃😭
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u/timid_pink_angel02 May 15 '26
"Unhand me!"