#there's also an earlier incident with badb as crow messing about with his intestines

[finnlongman]

for the ask game: corvids pick at cú chulainns body?

In both versions of the Death of Cú Chulainn, a scald-crow lands on Cú Chulainn's body and this is taken as a sign that he is actually dead (they were not sure up until that point).

In BMMM, the early tale, an unspecified scald-crow lands on him, and Erc mac Cairpri says, "Hmm, warriors don't usually let birds land on them, he's definitely dead." (§23 in Kimpton's edition.)

In OCC, the late tale, Medb and the men of Ireland send Badb ingen Cailitín to find out whether Cú Chulainn is dead. She goes in the form of a bird (a richt eóin), later specified to be a richt fuince .i. fennóigi - "in the form of a scald-crow, that is, a [different word for scald-crow]" (§42 in Van Hamel's edition).

A scald-crow is also known as a hooded crow. I like your use of 'corvid' here to be as all-encompassing as possible. Many retellings say "raven", for some reason, but look at these funky little guys. Why not have it be one of these. I used to see them all the time when I lived in Cork, they're certainly common in Ireland.