Noah first sent a raven from Noah's Ark to check whether the floodwaters had receded.
Genesis 8:7 says Noah sent out a raven after the ark had rested. The bird went back and forth until the waters dried from the earth. Noah then sent a dove, creating the more familiar scene in which a bird returns with an olive leaf.
Because the dove and olive leaf episode is much more widely remembered, the raven is often mistakenly identified as the first bird. In the sequence given by Genesis, however, the raven comes first, followed by the dove. The two birds serve different narrative roles in the account’s search for dry land.