House crow : The jack of all trades

House crow is a master of many skills. From being a sincere spectator to a mischievous thief to a social being , it plays every role with utter perfection. 

                    The crows have always suffered the disgrace of stealing food from other small birds and robbing shiny pieces (like jewellery) from humans. Yet,  they are among the very intelligent creatures. They display an impressive capacity of imitating several sounds like that of car horn , barking dogs and human speech. They even mourn the death of loved ones in social gatherings.

                                                                          The crow always stands out for its intelligence , memory and socializing skills.

                                              

House crow in flight

Here are some details about God's own surveillance camera:

  

Common name: kaaga ,kaak ,greynecked crow, house crow.

Scientific name: Corvus splendens

Identification:

• Both male and female look similar. 
• The forehead, crown, throat, back wings and tail are glossy black in colour.
• The collar , neck and lower beast are grey coloured.
• It makes a loud and sharp kaa-kaa sound.

Habitat: It lives close to human habitat.

Food: 

• They are omnivorous in nature.  They feed upon seeds , fruit , berries , grains, birds' eggs, nestlings,  insects, dead animals, fish and other food scraps.

House Crow collecting food

Nest: 

• They establish their nests in local environment on trees like neem , Ashoka , jamun, etc. 
• In areas with non-availability of natural nesting sites , they use artificial nesting sites like power transmission line towers and mobile towers.

Social behaviour: 

• They are highly gregarious and prefer to live around humans.
• They are exceptionally intelligent and use wide variety of foraging techniques.
• They are mostly found foraging around houses , parks , markets , dumpyard, etc.
• They become very aggressive while defending their territory or young ones. They make a call to gather nearby crows in case of any threat
• They are admiringly adaptive. They can live upon anything that is edible.
• They are brood parasitized by asian koel

IUCN Status: Least concern. 

Photographs by: Yamini Dashora.