My favorite bird

 My favorite bird. 

If  you are thinking about the more colourful creatures of the feathered family like peacocks or parakeets, I'm sorry you will be disappointed to know that my favorite happens to be the simple plain looking Crow. 

I have been an admirer and an avid watcher of this very common bird and I have gathered a lot of information from various sources that never fail to fascinate me. 

One evening, I was walking in my terrace as is my routine at sunset time.  I noticed a small bird which by its movements, I gathered, had just learnt to fly.. But what initially bothered me was that it was constantly being pursued by a Crow.    On closer observation, I realised that the young bird was not a crow.  After a while, I couldn't spot the two anymore, I continued to walk, but constantly kept looking around and at a distance on top of a coconut tree, I saw to my deepest thrill and shocking surprise, that the Crow was actually pursuing a young cuckoo (which after being hatched by the crow obviously) and finally succeeded in feeding it some food scraps it had found.. My love for the bird grew many fold watching this beautiful scene unfold before my very eyes... What a great lesson to be learnt by us Humans..!! Till then, I had only known that the cuckoo laid it's eggs in the crows nest and the crow hatched it without the knowledge that it was not one of its own..It brought to my mind a beautiful couplet by the famous Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar. 

A few months later, I happened to read an article in Reader's Digest about the famous cartoonist R. K. Lakshman wherein he is asked by the interviewer why the common crow figured in most of his cartoons to which, much to my delight, his reply is ' because the crow is my favorite bird'.  He also says that the crow is the most intelligent of all birds. Very true, I thought to myself. 

There are a lot of things we humans learn from nature and definitely in that respect, the crow is a perfect teacher.. 

Decades back, when we were living abroad for a few years, the list of the things I missed so much about India included the humble Crow. 

It is said that the crow rises very early(I definitely am yet to see a sleeping crow) 

It takes a bath twice a day.. I have seen that whenever I have a basin of water laid out, few crows dip and wash themselves at dusk time.. I haven't observed this in the early mornings as I am not such a early riser myself. 

A crow has only one partner for life.. That was really great to know.

A crow does not take any food after sunset.. That was really awesome to learn.. Won't it help us humans a good deal in Emulating that? 

Making a great noise on spotting food and sharing it with other crows unlike  human beings who are more selfish and again making a cacophony when one of its fellow beings is hurt or in some danger again unlike us who are indifferent (road accident victims -how many of us stop to help?) 

One of my favorite pastimes is watching the interaction between my dear dachshund Omi and the Crow.  Whenever Omi creates a fuss eating his food, I only have to lay the plate a little further for the crows to arrive.. And suddenly Omi is all hungry and there is a competition and everytime to Omi's distress, the crows are successful in snatching away few beak fulls. At other times I have watched Omi trying to catch up with the speed of the crow and ultimately look bewildered when they are only half an inch apart now and the next minute, the Crow takes flight.. I love the expression of Omi at such times.. It is a mix of helplessness and admiration.!!  I pat him on the head and tell him 'You may be black too Omi, but you are not a Crow'😊