In Genesis, what is the first bird Noah sends from the Ark?

In Genesis, the first bird Noah sends from the Ark is a raven.

Genesis 8:7 says Noah sent out a raven after the waters began to decrease. The raven flew back and forth until the waters dried from the earth. Noah then sent a dove to see whether the surface had become clear, beginning a separate sequence involving the dove’s returns and the olive leaf.

This ordering is important because the dove is often the best-known bird associated with the ark story in art and popular culture. The raven nevertheless appears first in the biblical text. The raven’s behavior is described less fully than the dove’s, and Genesis does not say that it brought Noah a sign.

The question concerns the order of birds in Genesis, not a general symbol of the flood. Later religious art often emphasizes the dove because of its olive leaf, but that imagery should not erase the earlier raven episode. The two birds perform different roles in the narrative.