The first bird Noah released from Noah’s Ark was a raven.
Genesis 8 says that after the waters began to recede, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a raven. The bird went back and forth until the waters dried from the earth. Noah then sent out a dove to test whether the ground had become suitable for leaving the ark.
The raven is sometimes overlooked because the dove’s later flights are more memorable. The dove first returned because it found no resting place, then returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf, and finally did not return after being released again. Those events provide the story’s best-known image of renewed land.
The sequence matters: the raven came first, followed by the dove. Genesis does not say that the raven brought back an object or leaf. That detail belongs to the dove’s second flight.