I'm in Oz and we have a Great Raven. Large shiny black, almost blue, feathers and some have Blue eyes, some have yellow and other varieties have
black eyes.
The Cooloola Coast region's original people speak about the blue-eye as being a Protector and messenger of the Creator, while the yellow-eyes where
the Trickster. I noted the growing numbers of blue-eyes in urban areas and less of the yellow-eyes now.
I moved to a farm half an hour out of town to where a family of blue eyes lived. I soon learned they were not the villianous birds we've been led to
believe they are. In fact, I've seen them chased out of trees by other birds. Being on the spiritual minded side of things, I placed a light barrier
around the fence to keep snakes away.. it worked well too if you topped it up regularly.. but, the Ravens also noticed it and started to show a little
interest in me.
So I offered them food at a safe distance which I 'lighted' and they happily ate, then over time they allowed me closer to their family. Their
leader was an old Granma with many missing feathers, who sat topmost in the tree and was first to call danger when large Eagles were around.
One morning I woke up to the loudest cawing at my windows. I went outside to see on the next hill over a very large bulldozer being started up to be
taken off its transporter. Not only had the Ravens woken me early, but they had also called hundreds of others to the area and were circling a huge
old tree as if to protect it from the machine. Once they saw the machine was not going to knock down the ancient tree, the family groups split off and
returned home.
I listened to their speech and it seemed they had three forms of language used at different times. One day I was visited by a woman who sought to have
me partnered with her, and was a little angry with my soft refusal, so she went for a fast walk. As soon as she left one of the blue-eyes flew onto
the fence post in front of me, leaned forward stretching its neck out and began softly talking in low whispery gutterals marked with various clicking
noises.
At that point I was wanting some clarity on my personal direction and started to listen more to the Raven and relaxed myself into a state similar to
meditation. I thought how I would love to understand what the Raven was saying to me, then, I 'heard' a very soft feminine voice tell me, "Do not
go with this one, she is not for you." I took that as a direct confirmation of my choice and was happy with that. Interestingly, the Raven stopped
talking once I "got it", and when the woman returned it 'yelled' at her. lol, but true.
Lastly, once the family flew off somewhere for three days and four yellow-eyes moved into the tallest tree. They were noisy and offensive to other
birds of the area. The moment one of the family was visible over a distant ridge the yellow-eyes retreated quickly.