The affable relationship between crows and humans

Of the birds that live close to human habitation, crow is one. Although unlike sparrows which fabricate their nests in strategic corner of a house, the clever crows build their nests not exactly within a residence but at more strategic points such as on a tree or electric poles. Not far from human abodes, these nests are a very patchy work. A crow couple spends time by rotation and at night sleeps in the nests but otherwise crows have a colony of their own to sleep on tall trees forming something like woodlands. The wooded areas such as parks provide them with communal roosts where they gather in the evening. Such high roosts are chosen deliberately to avoid predators.

In villages the crows have no problem of finding their shelters but in urban space their roosts are not so prolific and, therefore, maintain a colony of thousands of their kinds. Crows and ravens are highly intelligent members of Corvidae family but the ravens are more than twice the size of the other species. In cities and towns, crows can be easily seen anywhere and everywhere but ravens are rare visitors there. They prefer avoiding the excessive light and sound and prefer more wild, open and forested habitats. While crows live in large groups, ravens are found alone and in pairs only.

The two species have an adversarial relationship because both depend on the same source of foods. But it is the crows which are aggressors in time they confront each other. Crows take advantage of their numbers and in 97 per cent of cases, they are the instigators of conflicts. They defend their colonies and nests from predators by unleashing their aggression first. To protect their territories, they do not hesitate to harass not only ravens but also kites and even eagles when they venture into the zone the crows claim their own. Surprisingly, they maintain a good neighbourly relationship with pigeons, maybe, because they maintain a healthy distance from each other when it comes to rivalry on food sources.

The death of one of the members of their large group can incite a riotous and raucous situation. The neighbourhood appears to become a battleground with protest tendered against the unknown enemies. They really become highly agitated. Otherwise, they maintain peace in the intra-group relationship. In case of the urban crows, they possibly have their foraging field allocated logically. The crows that visit a particular flat or residence do so routinely. No, like their rural counterparts they hardly try to steal food from a house unless it is left on the open balcony.

What is particularly remarkable is the crow-human relations that grow overtime. If noticed keenly, it is quite possible to discern the distinctions between the different types of cawing. In pitch and intensity, it differs in order to send the right message. The cawing differs on the basis of emergency such as defending territories and availability of extra foods. They try to communicate with human beings when they are looking for food. Soft cawing is likely to signal that they are begging for food, and a little high-pitch vocalisation means they are somewhat irritated by not getting what they want. Then, there is the expression of gurgling gratitude when food is thrown their way. At times the relations are quite clear: if the provider of food talks to them, they raise their heads sideways to decipher what instruction is there. They are no longer impatient but are ready to wait a little longer for their share.

In villages there is no such scope of developing a relationship between crows and humans. If there is an opportunity, crows would dare steal food from the open kitchen. People also hate this propensity of crows to steal foods. As scavenger crows, however, play a useful role in cleaning the environment. Now that there is a well organised system of domestic garbage collection in the cities, crows cannot feed on household waste innards from fish and fowls. Therefore, crows have become more dependent on the generosity of city inhabitants. These birds are friendly enough to deserve the leftovers from households or at times some crumbs of food fit for human consumption.

Crows that come flying in the morning may not be beautiful like the various pet birds but they too have the right to survive. They can feel human moods whether one is treating them well or not. If not, they usually avoid that abode and flock where the inhabitants are more generous to share the leftovers and a few morsels of genuine foods.