This week's design started more with the animal than the exhibit. Johnny Depp's character in the recent film version of
The Lone Ranger sported a complete crow as part of his headgear:
Source: theimproper.com
When LEGO acquired the rights to create playsets for the film, their Tonto minfigure had to have an accurate appearance:
Source: lego.wikia.com
Thus LEGO gave its users a thoroughly detailed raven model, one of the few LEGO animals accurately scaled to the size of minifigures. I was inspired to build a flight cage for these birds:
It would pretty difficult to use the closed cage as a playset, so it's designed to be modular. The front portion containing the perching tree can be rotated on a hinge away from the rock face, and the top of the mountain is a separate unit from the bottom.
The residents of this exhibit are
common ravens (
Corvus corax). In addition to possibly being the largest of all songbirds (order Passeriformes), common ravens are the widely distributed of any member of the crow family (Corvidae). Ravens are highly intelligent and often moody. They are almost like the bird equivalent of cats. Here, one looks down on the foolish humans with distain:
A perching tree gives the ravens a vantage point within their enclosure, a good source of mental stimulation.
In the enclosed feeding area, one raven is chowing down on a healthy diet.
Ravens are generalist omnivores, so they require a balanced diet of grains, insects, and meat. It is preferred to give ravens in captivity the occasional whole prey carcass for some added mental challenge.
Some added scenery gives the exhibit a nice thematic feeling of American wilderness.
As with previous sets, the raven flight has connectors that allow it to be smoothly integrated with other playsets. Below it is shown connected to the
reptile terraria from two weeks ago. Keep an eye out as new sets are added and the LEGO Zoo expands.
