John E Marriott's Image

A shapeless lump of puffed-up black: that’s what the figure looked like, squatting in the middle of a snow-covered road in Jasper National Park, Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.

As John drove slowly towards the feathers, he realised it was a raven. ‘I fully expected it to fly off at any moment, but it just sat there, looking as though it had just got out of bed.’ John cruised slowly by and stopped some 30 metres away to photograph the bird. ‘Looking through the images afterwards, I laughed out loud.’ Fluffing up may look like a bad-hair day to a human, but if a male does it to a female raven it signals an invitation to take note or even to party, though a good fluff does also keep out the cold.