Our first morning in Alaska was spent in the cab of our truck, we had come into port in Juneau at 4am and decided to get some sleep. And when we woke that morning my children were amazed by Alaska's big black chickens! They were everywhere! These massive big black birds can weigh up to 1.5-2 pounds and their bodies can be up to 2 feet in length. Their size isn't the only amazing thing about them.

BD131Well, hello there!

They are seriously intelligent! After living in Fairbanks for 3 years we had learned that you couldn't put anything even remotely resembling food in their eyesight. As I stated before we own a truck so grocery shopping became a game of cat and mouse with the ravens. If you left groceries in the bed of the truck for even the amount of time it took to wait through a red light, the ravens would find it. And they would try and eat anything that even remotely resembled food. I found beak marks in my tea boxes, milk jugs and all kinds of groceries. So we had to get creative and always have a cooler or plastic tub in the bed of the truck to carry items.

BD130A raven calling to his mates.

Another sign of their intelligence are the calls they make. I am sure they have a normal call although I haven't been able to hear just one call. They have this amazing ability to mimic sounds they hear. If you are around ravens that live around civilization you will notice that these birds will mimic car alarms and other noises that are common. I have seen people walking through parking lots get completely confused by hearing a car alarm engaging but not seeing anyone and it turns out there is a raven hanging out on a light pole above them in what seems like a game to the raven.

BD129A raven scouting from a tree.