In Genesis, the first living thing Noah sent from the Ark after the waters receded was a raven.
Genesis 8:7 records Noah releasing the raven. The passage says it went to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. Noah then sent a dove, whose returns provided more specific signs about whether the land was ready.
The sequence is often compressed in popular retellings into “Noah sent a dove,” because the dove’s olive leaf is the story’s most memorable image. However, Genesis explicitly places the raven first. The raven’s behaviour is described more briefly and does not produce a named object such as the olive leaf.
This episode belongs to the testing phase after the ark had come to rest. It should not be confused with the animals entering the ark before the flood, when Genesis describes Noah bringing birds and land animals aboard.