In the Noah’s Ark story, Noah first sent out a raven after the rain stopped.
Genesis 8:7 says Noah released a raven, which went back and forth until the waters had dried from the earth. The passage then describes a different sequence involving a dove, making the raven the first bird explicitly named in this part of the account.
Noah sent the dove three times. On its second release, it returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf, showing that vegetation had reappeared. On the third release, it did not return, indicating that the land was becoming habitable.
The raven and dove episodes are sometimes blended together in retellings, but Genesis distinguishes them clearly. The dove later became especially prominent in art and popular culture as a symbol of peace and renewal, while the raven appears first in the biblical sequence.