Of the Code of Crows and Pigeons

Of the Code of Crows and Pigeons

I spent January to March this year with my daughter in Chennai- which I call the “winter capital”- to escape Gurgaon’s cold winters! My morning task was to tend to the plants on her terrace. The terrace was surrounded by trees and birds were plenty- most ubiquitous being the crows and pigeons and an occasional parrot. I took pleasure in observing the birds. Around 7 am each morning, a neighbour would come to the terrace with some cooked rice which he offered to the Sun God. After he would leave, the crows would come either in singles or in a bunch, nibble at the rice offerings, and fly away with beak-fulls of rice- obviously to feed their children. There were plenty of pigeons also flying in and out. What I noticed was when the crows were active, the pigeons almost respectfully stayed away, just flying around, waiting for the crows to have their fill. Then they would troop in and have their share of the rice. The surprising thing for me was this- if the pigeons came before the crows and nibbled at the rice, the crows would simply fly around and go away without any attempt to touch the rice at all! Another interesting observation was the pigeons testing of the right twigs for their nests. Since there were trees all around, twigs and leaves would fall on the terrace. The small twigs dry up easily and lay in the terrace. But sometimes, there would be fresh green twigs as well. A pigeon would sweep in, take a twig in its beak, test its flexibility by biting into it, discard all dry twigs and fly away with the good flexible ones. This was obviously to build the nest to lay its eggs. It is not that I am trying to tell something which most of you might be aware of. What attracted me was the sense of perception and intelligence the birds exhibited. The pigeons code of conduct in waiting for the crows to finish, and the crows not wanting the rice nibbled by the pigeons. Then the pigeons picking up the right flexible twigs for their intended purpose. Some minor lessons from Mother Nature - something to learn and respect.