Jungle Crow. (Corvus macrohynchos )
-Ragoo Rao
This month the bird selected for our column is the Jungle crow. It may seem a little frivolous trying to introduce the crow, which everyone
knows as a raucous bird and sometimes even considered a nuisance. What I'm trying to highlight is " the lesser known aspect" of the crow. The most unglamorous bird to study is the Crow, but if one starts to really try to know about the crow, it sure surprises
with its superb intelligence and adaptability to various vagaries of life. Presuming that this part of the crow might trigger some attention towards this bird I decided to go ahead.
Every creature is a marvel and a masterpiece of nature's evolutionary process and everything has a niche in the fabric of life on this planet.
Otherwise, it would not have been there.
A noisy, raucous jet black bird with a heavy bill and a crooked cockeyed look is the Jungle crow. It's other cousin the House crow, which is
smaller and not as glistening in it's colour and grayish neck and body parts. The Jungle Crow as the name suggests is mainly restricted to the Jungles through out the country. Some do make their presence felt in urban areas also. These birds are more robust
and are seen in pairs most of the time. Both sexes are alike and there is no marked difference except for their build, which can be noticed only if one is studying a pair and does close observations. The female is slightly slender.
The Jungle crow is endowed with a marvellous intelligence and learns a lot of survival skills with experience.
Perhaps the crows are the most intelligent of the birds. Under study programs the crows have been noticed to untie the toughest knots tied to get at any food placed inside a bag or container. They have been even noticed to draw up a string and get the
food tied to the end of a string and hung from a branch. Crows have the uncanny ability to open lids of boxes and also unbolt window hooks to get at anything.
I have myself tried all this and whatever was already observed by others were proven beyond my doubts by these amazing survivors.
Crows are omnivorous and also highly opportunistic in their food habits. They eat anything from food grains to the most infected meat also.
Their digestive juices are so well adapted, whatever infected and maggot-ridden piece of flesh that would have been fatal to some life, the crow relishes that as though it was a delicacy, and go unscathed.
In jungles this crow is both an ally and a giveaway to any nature photographer. The presence of crows in a group in a jungle often leads
us to a carcass hidden by a predator. The predator, which will always be close to the hidden carcass, also uses the crow as an alarm against intruders. So the best thing to do is not to follow crows in predator infested jungles. These birds always perch on
trees and keep a close observation on the activities of other animals around.
In the urban areas these birds are useful scavengers, as they will feed on anything right from kitchen garbage to dead rodents.
These birds follow other nesting birds and locate their nests and wait for a chance to get at their young or eggs. They play the role assigned
to them by nature to the fullest efficiency. Nesting season is chiefly March to May in Northern India and December to April in the southern part. The nest is a untidy mass of twigs and lined with soft dry grass and feathers. 3 to 5 pale
blue-green eggs are laid which are slightly blotched with brown speckles. Both the parents share all domestic chores. The Koel also lay their eggs here and these crows play the foster parents role.
Perhaps the koel is the only bird, which outsmarts a Crow in this aspect.
Whether these crows form a life long bond is not yet proven. These marvellous birds also have a good vocabulary and various vocalizations
for different communications.
We better start admiring this bird and try to know more about their life.