In Genesis, Noah first sent out a raven from the Ark before sending doves.
Genesis 8:7 says Noah sent a raven after the waters began to recede. The raven flew back and forth until the waters dried from the earth. Noah then sent a dove to test whether the land had become visible, beginning the sequence of dove flights commonly remembered from the story.
The raven and dove serve different narrative roles. The raven’s repeated movement does not give Noah the clear sign he seeks, while the dove later returns with an olive leaf and eventually does not return. The question therefore concerns the first bird named in this testing sequence, not the bird associated with the olive leaf.
Some retellings omit the raven or begin directly with the dove. That simplified version explains why the raven is less familiar, but Genesis includes it explicitly. The passage gives no species details beyond the bird names.