Noah sent a raven before he sent a dove to search for dry land.
Genesis 8:7 says that Noah released a raven after the ark had come to rest and the waters began to recede. The raven flew back and forth until the waters had dried from the earth. Noah then sent a dove, whose repeated journeys provided more specific signs about the condition of the land.
The dove first returned because it could not find a place to rest. On its second flight, it brought back an olive leaf, and on its third flight it did not return. This sequence makes the dove the more memorable bird in popular retellings, although the raven is named first in the biblical account.
Different translations and interpretations discuss how to understand the raven’s activity, but the bird itself is explicit in Genesis. The passage does not say that Noah sent an eagle or other commonly illustrated bird before the raven.