Green beat: Ravishing ravens

The brown-necked raven is the black beauty of our desert. It is the only dominant animal visible all year round.

With many roads in the UAE cutting through the desert, ravens are often found crossing these roads. Some even brave the heavy traffic on Emirates Road or the Dubai-Sharjah-Ras Al Khaimah Road and try to pick up animal offal or titbits thrown by people.

Ravens usually live around clumps of ghaf trees and even build nests in them.

Ravens can also be found loitering around a flock of camels and Bedouin camps, picking up left-over food.

On a recent trip to the desert covering a stretch of the under-construction Jebel Ali Airport, I was astonished to find the nest of a raven under an elevated water tank.

I could spot the nest from a distance of nearly one kilometre. Unable to control my curiosity, I climbed up nearly 21 steps to reach the nest.

The effort was definitely rewarding. For the first time in my life I found a beautiful raven’s nest with four newly- hatched chicks and two eggs yet to be hatched. I could hear the chicks making sounds when I placed the eggs close to my ear.

This is possibly the first record of a brown-necked raven building a nest in a concrete structure in the UAE.