In Genesis, Noah first sent a raven from Noah's Ark to look for dry land.
Genesis 8:6–7 says that after forty days Noah opened the ark's window and sent out a raven. The bird went back and forth until the waters had dried from the earth. Noah then sent a dove to test whether the floodwaters had receded.
The raven and dove serve different roles in the sequence. The raven is the first bird released, while the dove becomes the more familiar symbol because it returns with an olive leaf and later does not return when released again. The first bird was therefore not the dove.
The olive leaf episode is also the source of a widely recognized peace symbol. Genesis does not say that the raven brought back a leaf; that detail belongs to the dove's later flight. The passage gives no species beyond the terms raven and dove, and it does not describe the birds as magical or transformed.