The cuckoo that flew out of the crow's nest.
The raucous cawing of crows outside the window by itself did not attract my attention but the feeble screeches of a fledgling did.
A spotted koel ,not fully grown was attacked by several crows that was causing all this commotion late in the morning.The young bird ,its beak ,fragile and mouth still red and tender,that was pecked repeatedly by the aggressive black crows ,somehow managed to hide itself behind the AC ,on my window sil.Its pathetic squeaks turned my heart whilst the crows violent caws and moves made me see red.
A maid from down below tried to shoo away this rowdy group by shouting and waving her hands. The effect on the determined crows ,nil.
Since the young bird was pretty well protected in that niche and out of reach of those wildly clamouring nasty beaks i decided to film this new entry into this world.
As i did the old and familiar tale that koels lay their eggs in crows nest and then fly away ,absolving themselves of their responsibility to raise their young flashed through my mind.Was the discovery that one of the young ones they painstakingly raised thinking to be their own, wasn't, the cause of the crows fury?
For the past few weeks i observed a couple of crows build a nest , a thorny one on the branches of the adjacent gulmohar tree and saw them feed young greedy pinkish throats ,always opened upwards, with tidbits in clock work regularity ,the whole day.In preceding weeks i had heard black koels singing from the tree tops wooing their mates, that subsided with the building of the crows nest!
The crows geared themselves for yet another attack at this shivering little mite and i could bear it no longer.Since my shooing was of no avail i grabbed a duster with a long handle and pushed it through the window ,waving it threateningly at the attackers.
It had the desired effect, The crows flew away.To my dismay it also had the unintended effect which i had skipped thinking, in my eagerness to save the fledgling,the stick had also scared the little koel that panicked and abandoned its protective perch and flew straight into the group of circling tormentors.I could have kicked myself.
Again the air was filled with loud cawing and feeble screeches.They had flown out of my sight and as i pondered about the fate of the fledgling feeling quite responsible to its safety, owing to the outcome of my hasty actions,the noise of the bird fight suddenly subsided , magically .
On scouring the ground apprehensively for a carcass of the koel i found none. A great relief!
The little one had apparently found a better hiding place , a safe haven and the crows realising the futility of their exercise had flown away to attend to more pressing business that of foraging for food and feeding their own hungry little ones ,who were yet to outgrow their care.
A spotted koel ,not fully grown was attacked by several crows that was causing all this commotion late in the morning.The young bird ,its beak ,fragile and mouth still red and tender,that was pecked repeatedly by the aggressive black crows ,somehow managed to hide itself behind the AC ,on my window sil.Its pathetic squeaks turned my heart whilst the crows violent caws and moves made me see red.
A maid from down below tried to shoo away this rowdy group by shouting and waving her hands. The effect on the determined crows ,nil.
Since the young bird was pretty well protected in that niche and out of reach of those wildly clamouring nasty beaks i decided to film this new entry into this world.
As i did the old and familiar tale that koels lay their eggs in crows nest and then fly away ,absolving themselves of their responsibility to raise their young flashed through my mind.Was the discovery that one of the young ones they painstakingly raised thinking to be their own, wasn't, the cause of the crows fury?
For the past few weeks i observed a couple of crows build a nest , a thorny one on the branches of the adjacent gulmohar tree and saw them feed young greedy pinkish throats ,always opened upwards, with tidbits in clock work regularity ,the whole day.In preceding weeks i had heard black koels singing from the tree tops wooing their mates, that subsided with the building of the crows nest!
The crows geared themselves for yet another attack at this shivering little mite and i could bear it no longer.Since my shooing was of no avail i grabbed a duster with a long handle and pushed it through the window ,waving it threateningly at the attackers.
It had the desired effect, The crows flew away.To my dismay it also had the unintended effect which i had skipped thinking, in my eagerness to save the fledgling,the stick had also scared the little koel that panicked and abandoned its protective perch and flew straight into the group of circling tormentors.I could have kicked myself.
Again the air was filled with loud cawing and feeble screeches.They had flown out of my sight and as i pondered about the fate of the fledgling feeling quite responsible to its safety, owing to the outcome of my hasty actions,the noise of the bird fight suddenly subsided , magically .
On scouring the ground apprehensively for a carcass of the koel i found none. A great relief!
The little one had apparently found a better hiding place , a safe haven and the crows realising the futility of their exercise had flown away to attend to more pressing business that of foraging for food and feeding their own hungry little ones ,who were yet to outgrow their care.
posted by K.C. Sujata at
9:16 PM
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