What birds did Noah send out from the ark?

Q: What birds did Noah send out from the ark?

Noah sent out two kinds of birds: first a raven, which 'went forth to and fro,' then a dove three times. The dove returned with an olive leaf on its second flight — the origin of the dove-and-olive-branch symbol of peace.

Genesis 8 records two birds. First the raven — an unclean carrion bird that never came back, restlessly ranging "to and fro" over the floodwaters:

“And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.”Genesis 8:7 (KJV)

Then the dove, sent three times. The first time she found no rest and returned. The second time she brought back the most famous twig in history:

“Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;”Genesis 8:8 (KJV)

“And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.”Genesis 8:11 (KJV)

The third time she did not return at all — the sign that the earth was dry. From this passage the dove with an olive leaf became the world's symbol of peace, and in the Gospels the Spirit of God descends on Jesus at His baptism "like a dove" — the bird of the new creation alighting on the head of the new Adam.

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What birds did Noah send out from the ark?

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