Noah first sent a raven from the Ark to check whether the floodwaters had subsided.
Genesis 8:7 says that Noah sent out a raven after the Ark had come to rest. The bird went to and fro until the waters dried from the earth. Noah then sent a dove to obtain a clearer sign of whether dry land had appeared.
The raven is often overlooked because the dove’s later return with an olive leaf became the story’s most familiar bird image. In the sequence told by Genesis, however, the raven comes first, followed by the dove’s repeated flights.
The passage does not say that the raven returned with a branch or other visible proof. The dove, rather than the raven, supplies the famous olive-leaf sign. This makes “raven” the specific answer for Noah’s first bird-sending episode.