Australian Raven: The Bird Everyone Underestimates
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"Just a black bird." That's usually where the conversation about ravens starts — and it's exactly the assumption this calendar sets out to overturn.
Australian Ravens get dismissed constantly, lumped in with crows, ignored in favour of flashier Australian birds like parrots and cockatoos. But spend real time photographing them and you notice things most people never do. Up close, that "black" plumage isn't black at all — it shifts through deep blue, purple, even a faint green sheen depending on how the light hits it. Their eyes are a pale, almost unsettling white-grey, which gives every portrait a strange, watchful intensity.
Then there's the intelligence. Ravens are problem-solvers. I've watched them work out how to open latched bins, cache food for later, and interact with each other in ways that feel less like instinct and more like conversation. Photographing them over months, in different seasons and settings, you start to pick up on individual personalities — the bold one who won't move for anything, the cautious one who watches from a branch before committing to anything.
Photographing Ravens at Jells Park
I've photographed ravens at Jells Park in Wheelers Hill, one of my go-to places in Melbourne for photographing Australian birds. They're easy to overlook there next to the ibis colony, pelicans and black swans on the lake — which is exactly why they're worth slowing down for. Watch the grassy areas around the lake early in the morning, and pay attention to how the low light pulls those hidden blues and purples out of the plumage.
There's more about the park, and the other birds I photograph there, in My Favourite Places: Jells Park, Wheelers Hill.
That's really the whole idea behind this calendar. A single photo of a raven says "here's a black bird." Twelve photos across a year say "here's a creature with more going on than you assumed."
The Australian Ravens Wall Calendar is personalised — choose your start month, language, and holiday set — and it's become a quiet favourite with people who already have a raven "regular" showing up in their own backyard.
