Bermuda birdwatchers have this week confirmed a sighting of a common raven on the Island for the first time.

Conservationist David Wingate said the bird was first reported by David Barber, who spotted it on January 1 and again on January 6. The sighting was later confirmed by Dr Eugene Harvey.

“The bird proved elusive for photo confirmation until Steven Desilva located its main feeding area on Westover farm,” Dr Wingate said.

“This enabled three other local birders including myself to study it and Andrew Dobson obtained an excellent photo of it in flight. It is a very raggedy plumaged bird as if it has had a rough time getting to Bermuda, but its wariness suggests that it is not an escaped cage bird.”

While the recent spotting is the first confirmed report of a raven on the Island, there was an unconfirmed sighting in St George’s nearly a century ago.

That bird was reportedly seen by Dr George Rankin in December 1918, and published as a hypothetical in the 1931 checklist of birds of Bermuda by Bradlee, Mowbray and Eaton.

Dr Wingate added: “I speculate that the present record is a consequence of the extremely cold and snowy winter being experienced on the American continent.

“The supposed 1918 record matches the date of arrival of the present record very closely so it would be interesting to check whether the winter of 1918 was similarly very cold and snowy.”

The common raven is the most common of the corvid family and can be seen throughout North America, Europe and Asia. While juvenile ravens have been known to form flocks, more mature birds mate for life and defend a territory as a pair.

The birds are also considered very intelligent, displaying the ability to solve problems individually and learn from one another.