Genesis says Noah first sent out a raven to test whether the floodwaters had receded. The bird flew back and forth until the waters dried from the earth, according to Genesis 8.
Noah then sent a dove on separate occasions. The dove initially found nowhere to rest, later returned with an olive leaf, and finally did not return. The different birds and their sequence are easy to merge when the story is remembered only in outline.
The raven’s role is brief in the biblical account, while the dove receives the more memorable narrative treatment and later symbolic associations. Genesis does not say that the raven returned carrying a branch or leaf. Those details belong to the dove episode and are the reason the dove is more commonly associated with signs of land after the flood.