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Sean D. Reyes
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Communications Director Saves Tracy Aviary Raven

July 16, 2019

About a month ago, a large black bird showed up outside the Capitol Hill executive offices of Utah’s Attorney General. It was strange to see this large bird—about the size of a cat—just perched on the window and apparently not afraid of our ogling and tapping on the window. And there were mixed reactions from all of us the other side of the glass. 

“Look how big (he) is!” (People always assume a stray animal is a male).

“What’s he doing here?” 

“Why doesn’t he fly away?”

“Is this good luck or bad luck?”

Some in the office even started calling the bird “Edgar” as in Edgar Allan Poe who wrote the poem “The Raven” in 1845, a work often noted for documenting a distraught lover’s descent into madness.

It turns out that OUR raven wasn’t ominous or mysterious. In fact, SHE is a female, friendly trained bird named Cash that was missing from the Tracy Aviary.  

For a few weeks, Cash managed to work her way into the lives of the people in our office who always wondered why she would just hop from the rail to the window and hang out, looking at the people on the other side of the glass. We snapped pictures, left croutons for her to eat, enjoyed her friendly presence. Cash entranced tourists who also noticed this unusual sight.

Initially, no one knew that Cash was hanging out at the Capitol after being chased away from the Aviary by hawks as her handlers were training her a month ago. I called Tracy Aviary because her appearance at the Capitol met all the criteria in the ‘Missing Raven’ notification online. On Saturday, her handlers came to the Capitol, and she flew to them before they even saw her. We’re all happy and grateful that she is back where she belongs, but we in the AG’s office must confess we are a little sad that our mysterious visitor won’t be perched outside our windows anymore. 

 But we can always visit her at the Aviary!

Below is a video taken by Chief of Staff Ric Cantrell: