Which animal did Noah send out first from the Ark?

Noah first sent a raven out from the Ark.

Genesis 8:7 says that Noah sent out a raven after the waters began to recede. The raven went to and fro until the waters dried from the earth. Noah then sent out a dove to test the condition of the land.

The dove receives more attention because it later returns with a freshly plucked olive leaf and eventually does not return. That memorable episode can cause readers to overlook the raven’s earlier role. The question here concerns the first bird Noah released, not the bird associated with the olive leaf.

The sequence shows Noah using birds as practical signs of changing conditions outside the ark. Genesis presents the releases as stages in determining when the earth had become sufficiently dry for the occupants to leave.