If you want to find a Forest Raven in Tasmania… By Sue Jones Reference Matthew W. Fielding, Jessie C. Buettel, Hanh Nguyen & Barry W. Brook (2019): Ravens exploit wildlife roadkill and agricultural landscapes but do not affect songbird assemblages, Emu - Austral Ornithology, DOI: 10.1080/01584197.2019.1629820 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2019.1629820 Summary If you want to find a Forest Raven in Tasmania, head for an agricultural area with a high volume of road traffic. Forest Ravens are frequently observed feeding on roadside carrion. In Victoria and New South Wales, range expansion of this species has actually been linked to increased vehicular activity and increased incidence of roadkill. Forest Ravens also prey opportunistically on the eggs and young of other bird species, as well as foraging for invertebrates and seeds. Matthew Fielding and co-workers at the University of Tasmania set out to examine whether Forest Ravens are more likely to be observed in modified landscapes (farmland or urban areas) than in forest, or in areas of higher roadkill density in south-eastern Tasmania. They also investigated whether Forest Raven density affected the abundance and diversity of other native passerines. They discovered that Forest Ravens are 6x more likely to be observed in areas of high roadkill than where roadkill is absent. This suggests that these intelligent birds understand that roads are a rich source of food and modify their foraging accordingly. Ravens are also 30% more likely to be seen in farmland than in non-agricultural forested or urban areas. Rather reassuringly, the density of Forest Ravens did not have a detrimental effect on the abundance or diversity of other passerines in the same area. One suggestion is that Forest Ravens actually benefit smaller birds by chasing away other potential predators such as raptors. However, Forest Ravens may prey on smaller birds primarily during the breeding season, which was not covered by this study. Matthew and his co-authors acknowledge that future surveys need to be conducted over the full year. Further work is needed to investigate whether future agricultural expansion and/or increased road traffic could lead to increases in Forest Raven populations with detrimental impacts on our smaller birds. .