Noah first sent a raven from the Ark to check the floodwaters.
Genesis 8:7 says Noah sent out a raven after the ark had come to rest and the waters were receding. The raven flew back and forth until the waters dried from the earth. Noah then sent a dove, beginning the better-known sequence involving the olive leaf.
The order matters because popular retellings often focus so strongly on the dove that they omit the raven. In the biblical account, the raven is the first bird used to assess conditions outside the ark, while the dove provides more specific signs in later flights.
The passage does not state that Noah sent these birds for navigation or rescue. They were sent as practical signs of whether the land had become accessible. The raven and dove therefore serve different narrative roles in Genesis 8.