An Encouraging Conspiracy – Georgia Wildlife Blog

Common ravens are having an uncommonly good nesting season in Georgia.

This spring, DNR staff found three thriving nests of the big and rare black birds in northeast Georgia and a fourth nest just across the South Carolina line. The lineup includes chicks at the same cliff-side spot in Tallulah Gorge State Park where ravens nested last year, a first for Rabun County, as well as nests on reservoir dams at lower elevations than ravens typically prefer.

Considering that it is unusual to find more than one raven nest in the state, “It’s quite a banner year,” said Dr. Bob Sargent of DNR’s Wildlife Conservation Section.

Raven chicks beg to be fed in a nest north of Tallulah Gorge State Park (DNR)

Although widespread in the Northern Hemisphere and exceptionally smart – using gunshots as queues for scavenging opportunities and young ones calling for help with hard-to-reach food – ravens were ravaged by hunting, poisoning and habitat loss in the eastern U.S. They are state-listed as rare in Georgia and are considered a species of greatest conservation need in Georgia’s draft 2025 State Wildlife Action Plan.

In the 1900s, ravens were confirmed nesting only at Brasstown Bald, the state’s highest point. Other suspected breeding areas also involved cliff ledges at least 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above sea level.

That changed this decade. A falconer spotted a nest on Lake Nottely dam in 2021. It was Georgia’s first raven nest on a humanmade structure and less than 2,000 feet above sea level. 2023 featured a nest at the Lake Blue Ridge dam. Last year, DNR’s Liz Morata documented a nest on the main cliff wall at Tallulah Gorge, only about 1,300 feet above sea level. The nest at the park fledged two young.

Two park visitors in blue shirts look at distant Tallulah Gorge cliff face of gray/tan rock and green trees, guided by park ranger dressed in green/tan uniform on wood/rock overlook

Tallulah Gorge Ranger West Malenke points park visitors to the raven nest on the far rock wall. (Kim Hatcher/DNR)

Sargent and Morata saw adults tending the Tallulah Gorge nest again this April – chicks have since been confirmed – and found a nest with young on the Chattooga River just north of the gorge. (DNR’s Shan Cammack initially reported the latter site last year.) Raven chicks were also spotted in nests at lakes Nottely and Blue Ridge.

A flock of ravens is sometimes called a conspiracy. Sargent has a word for this year’s nesting uptick in Georgia, including the use of lower heights and humanmade structures.

He calls it encouraging.