Keen Observations, Musings & Crowzy Facts
I absolutely love crows. They are bold, intelligent and beautiful. Bold enough to look into your eyes, ask for what they want with their incessant cawing; and don’t you take them lightly, as they’ll snatch what they want if need be. Thick as a community. Not scared of us presumptuous humans — not a bit. My house help insists that if a crow touches a person, they are ostracized from their kind. Quite believable, given what us humans have stooped to as far as nature is concerned.
I keep food and water for them outside my window. I like to observe them closely — the way they eat, the way they drink water — the exact manner in which they gulp the water. And when it is really hot, which is often, they keep their mouth open.
There was a time I was very lonely with too many changes happening rapidly in my life — my life was totally disrupted — in one word. I had no one for company. No work. No one would hire me. Friends, if you analyze deeply, are mostly, fairweather. I had taken to talking to these crows. It sounds really loony but they would listen. And they’d come back each day for more. My house help also says that when crows visit you, it means that your deceased ancestors are saying hello. I know it does not really make sense, but then just feeling that my father and my deceased dog have stopped by was very comforting to me and amusing. I did speak to them just as crows as one would speak to a cat or a dog. In fact the food was kept at another window but they would pop by at another one to talk to me. I love how they make eye contact and ensure there is ample distance between us. They’d stay for long, sometimes an hour. At times I’d lose track of time.
My life started moving ahead and getting full with work, sometimes people, but mostly work. I had no time or intent left to have these conversations…one sided of course. They did persist but I just could not continue. I still watch out for them from far, the way they watch me. I keep food for them, keeping in mind that they like chicken, mangoes, rice, chapati, apples, eggs and bones. Things are made just for them at times. Sparrows have a different bamboo feeder with grains for them, but they love white rice also. I love them also. I love discovering these little little things about them. Pigeons seldom come, thank god for that. I feel they are greatly romantic but not nice otherwise — menacing and lacking in intellect. A fantail visited me once, it was lovely. I didn’t even realize that I have become a sort of an amateur bird watcher, sans the binoculars.
My favourite observation and moment was when I was in the park playing with my friend Kitty Kat, the cat there and a crow, just to mess with the cat, swooped down and flew real close to the cat to tease her; not once once but twice. It was so endearing; it filled my heart.
Now I’d like to share some fun trivia about my favourite birds, no points for guessing: Crows.
They are one of the most underrated birds, and this is why…
- Crows are super smart. Here is a fun fact about them: they have been known to use traffic to help crack nuts. It has been observed that they drop nuts in busy intersections, then wait for cars to drive over them and crack them open. Not just this, these crows actually wait for the light to turn red to drop their nut and fly away when the light turns green. And fly back to collect their freshly-cracked nut at the next red light. How smart is that!!!
- I am not very big on romance but for animals to mate for life is huge — Crows mate for life. Oops mating isn’t really romance!
- I can hold a grudge to my grave and guess what? So can Crows. They can remember faces as a means to hold grudges.
- Dude! Crows are multilingual. I know I am totally geeking out over here. Well, Crows have regional dialects just like people — British English, American English, anybody?
- Crows are very communal in their behaviour. They hold funerals for the deceased — I have seen it. Their gatherings. Often seen gathered around their dead in the hundreds. Studies have shown this is because they are learning about any potential dangers nearby. Now isn’t that intelligent; a little selfish maybe, but smart nevertheless.
- Crows have huge brains! They have the largest brain to body ratio of any bird. Their brain to body ratio is even bigger than humans. Does that make you feel small?! It should.
- They can make tools. Yes, you read that right! Only four species that can craft tools include New Caledonian Crows and the others are humans, orangutans, and chimpanzees. They sharpen forked twigs into hooks and use it to scoop larvae and worms from holes in wood — one basic example.
- Like people hide their wealth, Crows hide their food especially if it thinks it is being watched.
One more fun fact: A murder of crows is the poetic name for a group of crows, not the scientific name. Most scientists don’t use that term; they would refer to them as a flock.
