In the Genesis account of Noah’s Ark, the raven is the first bird Noah sends out to test the waters. Genesis 8:7 says Noah released a raven after the Ark came to rest and the waters began to recede. The bird went back and forth until the waters dried from the earth.
Noah then sent a dove, creating the more familiar part of the episode. The first dove returned because it found no resting place. Seven days later Noah sent it again, and it came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf. After another seven days, Noah sent the dove out once more, and it did not return.
The raven and dove therefore have different roles in the sequence. The raven appears first, while the dove provides the signs that the land is becoming habitable. Retellings often mention only the dove and omit the raven, which can make the order easy to misremember.
The olive leaf later became a widely recognized symbol of peace and renewal, although Genesis’s immediate point is practical: it showed Noah that the floodwaters were receding.