According to Genesis, what was Noah doing when God first made the covenant after the Flood?

According to Genesis, Noah was offering a sacrifice when God first made the covenant after the Flood.

After the Ark comes to rest and Noah, his family, and the animals leave it, Genesis 8:20 says Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings from the clean animals and clean birds. Genesis 8:21 then describes God’s response, followed by the covenant and rainbow sign in Genesis 9.

The sacrifice is therefore part of the immediate post-Flood scene. It is not the same event as Noah planting a vineyard, which Genesis places later in chapter 9. That later episode is another reason readers can accidentally merge separate details from the narrative.

The offering also connects with the earlier distinction between clean and unclean animals. Genesis 7 gives Noah additional clean animals, and the post-Flood sacrifice provides a narrative reason for that difference. The text does not say that Noah sacrificed every clean animal or that the sacrifice occurred inside the Ark.