Some of the reasons that Poe chose this bird instead of a parrot is because it has a melancholy tone, it picks carcasses, it is a sign of ill-omen, and it is black. Black is a reminder of sorrow, darkness, evil, death, lack of insight, and mourning. These are all disturbing attributes of this bird and these show that a raven is not something you would want at your door in the middle of the night. When Poe first started writing this poem, he knew he had to have a bird that could talk, yet was non-sentient, non-thinking, and non-reasoning. So he had the choice of a parrot or a raven. As you can tell from above, the raven is more fitting for his intention.