The common raven is a fascinating and highly underrated bird. They’re beautiful, but also extremely intelligent. Their brains are relatively large for their size, and they’ve been known to craft and use tools, plan for the future, barter, play games like hide and seek, and mimic human voices as well as man made sounds like an engine starting.

A group of ravens is called an “unkindness” (maybe because they’re so tricksy), but they do have friends…as well as enemies. They remember faces and have episodic memories- they remember human faces and characteristics in association with an emotion or event. They also remember being cheated or conned, and have been known to hold grudges for up to a month!

Ravens are very worldly birds, and can (and do) live pretty much anywhere. Their populations are exploding, and they’ve found ways to adapt to and take advantage of encroaching human environments. But they’re one of the few rare species that has.

Ravens are everywhere, and witness to everything; every effect of climate change and act of environmental destruction. This drawing, titled “Messenger” conveys a raven as the communicator between humans and nature. The vintage pocket watch, nearly at 00:00, is a message that we are nearly out of time, with a red ribbon marking it as urgent. While ravens themselves may not be currently endangered, they still rely on us the conserve and protect their natural world.

This drawing is based off a beautiful reference photo by the talented @ladzinski 🙌🏻

The original of Messenger as well as prints are available on amilliontinylines.com