In Genesis, the first animal Noah sent out of Noah’s Ark after the Flood was a raven.
Genesis 8:7 says Noah sent out a raven after the ark had come to rest and the waters were receding. The raven went back and forth until the waters dried up from the earth. Noah then sent a dove, beginning a separate series of flights that supplied clearer signs about the condition of the land.
The raven is sometimes overlooked because the dove’s olive leaf became the better-known image from the story. Yet the order in Genesis is explicit: raven first, dove afterward. The passage does not describe Noah sending birds to search for a particular mountain or coastline; their flights function as practical signs within the narrative that the Flood waters were disappearing.