Life of a crow – Part 1

House crow is one of the most common urban birds in Mumbai. It is so common that we neglect to observe the way it lives. This bird always lives in co-existence with humans for centuries. Every household in Mumbai or several other parts in India has come across this bird and have interacted with it in some or the other way.

House crow or in general, any species of crow is regarded as “dirty bird” or “filthy bird”. Even though that may be the case, it is a bird, and it is an important part of our urban ecosystem.

One of the most common facts about crow is that the Asian Koel lays its egg in a crow’s nest and the crow is a fool who can’t make out the difference between it’s own eggs and the Asian Koel’s eggs! I find crows to be very intelligent and social birds who tend to live in groups.

If you observe carefully, when some member of a crow group dies, the whole group begins to caw at once, as if they are mourning for the dead member.

House crow is one of the birds that wakes up the earliest. Have you ever woke up at night and heard the crow’s cawing around a near by tree? Not always they do so, but most nights, whenever I have been awake, at least once I hear the crows cawing for a few moments; sometimes even flying around at night!

The pair of crow starts to build it’s nest at the beginning of spring (April) and lays its eggs around end of April and within first 3 months of May. The female crow spends most of the time incubating the eggs while the male spends it’s time outside searching for food. From time to time, the male crow comes to the nest and feeds the female crow. During the early dawn hours, the female crow takes some time off to fly around and spread its wings into the open air. During that time, the male crow incubates the eggs.

This summer, a pair of crow has built it’s nest right in my window, in a pot where I have planted lemon tree. The nest is ready and it has laid the eggs as well. One of my misconceptions was that crow’s eggs are white as those of pigeon and hen, and thats how we all think. When it comes to eggs, a picture of a white egg comes in our mind. But when I saw it for first time, it had a bluish tint with dark brown dots all over it. The eggs were more tapered and were not as round as that of the pigeon or hen.

I will be keeping you all updated about the growth of the little crows! So keep coming back for more of the “life of a crow”!

Part 2 to come with more interesting content!

From CROW DOCUMENTARY RAW

From CROW DOCUMENTARY RAW