The Crow

The Crow: highly social bird is also a toolmaker and problem solver

It’s time the truth about the amazing crow hit the mainstream. This big black loud bird deserves your attention, respect and definitely your admiration .  
WHERE HAVE THE CROWS OF INDORE GONE ??????

 

Crows, among other species like elephants and some primates, have demonstrated that humans are not the only toolmakers and problem solvers on the planet. According to  The Crow Society, crows rank as the eighth most intelligent non-human animals.

Watch this amazing video from thein which the crow not only uses a tool but reconstructs it to better suit his or her needs

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Crows have been known to place hard-to-crack nuts on roads for passing vehicles to crush. They love to play and have been seen climbing to great heights in a stiff wind and then falling earthward in a series of rolls and tumbles before catching themselves and doing it all over again. To amuse themselves, they will also pick up objects and invent games involving shaking, dropping and retrieving them.
And they know how to be their own doctors, it seems. Ants have acids and fluids that help rid crows of parasites. Crows have been observed stretching out on anthills and allowing ants to cover them, and sometimes they crush the ants into their feathers. Evidence indicates that this behaviour is learned and passed down generationally within crow family groups.
Crows live in monogamous, lifelong relationships and the younger members of the family help the parents raise new broods. Young crows do not breed until they are at least two years old. In spring and summer, they tend to stay with their family but in winter and fall the family groups join large aggregations that can contain thousands of individuals.
Crows have been hardest hit by West Nile virus, more so than any other bird though the blue jay, tufted titmouse, American robin, house wren, chickadee and Eastern bluebird have also been severely affected. They are also maligned by farmers, who accuse them of eating their crops while, in fact, crows most often eat the bugs and worms that destroy crops.
crow bird eat everything - from worms and bugs to mice and berries to rotten food and hard nuts. An adult crow needs 11 ounces of feed a day.

Angry Birds: Crows Never Forget Your Face

Mess with a crow, and it will remember your face for over five years.

 

The Crow Family (Corvidae)

Order: Passerines (Passeriformes) Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws (Eurasian and Daurian) to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents (except South America) and several offshore and oceanic islands (except for a few, which included Hawaii, which had the Hawaiian crow that went extinct in the wild in 2002). In the United States and Canada, the word "crow" is used to refer to the American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos. The crow genus makes up a third of the species in the Corvidae family. Other corvids include rooks and jays. Crows appear to have evolved in Asia from the corvid stock, which had evolved in Australia. A group of crows is called a flock or a murder,[1] because the group will sometimes kill a dying crow.[2] Recent research has found some crow species capable not only of tool use but of tool construction as well.[3] Crows are now considered to be among the world's most intelligent animals.[4] The Jackdaw and (along with its fellow corvid, the European Magpie) has been found to have a neostriatum approximately the same relative size as is found in chimpanzees and humans, and significantly larger than is found in the gibbon.[5]

Members of this family are fond of bright, shiny objects, and will steal rings and other jewellery.

Pigeons

Origins: Pigeons and doves have been around for a long time—long before humans. Rock Doves are thought to have originated in southern Asia several million years ago. Compare this to modern humans that first appeared about 120,000 years ago.
Size and weight: A pigeon is about 13 inches (32 cm) in length from bill to tail and weighs a little less than a pound (0.35 kg). Males are slightly bigger than females.
A pigeon family: 

• Hen: an adult female pigeon
• Cock: an adult male pigeon
• Hatchling: a newly hatched pigeon
  just a few days old
• Squab: a young pigeon from 1–30 days old.
  When ready to leave its nest, a squab can sometimes weigh more than its parents.
• Peeper or Squeaker: a young bird that is learning to eat
• Fledgling: a bird that is ready to fly or that has just taken its first flight
• Juvenile: a bird out of its nest and flying but less than eight months old

What's So Special About Pigeons?

 

"Pigeons are dumb. "They poop on people's heads." "They smell."

That's what some people say about pigeons. In fact, that's what a lot of people say about these birds.
But did you ever notice that pigeons come in so many colors and feather patterns? Did you ever notice their shiny, rainbow-like neck feathers or their red feet? Did you ever notice the interesting way that pigeons coo and strut?
The fact is, pigeons are special. They are special because there is such variety in the way they look. Blue Jays all look very much alike, and so do robins and cardinals. But find a flock of pigeons and you will see white ones and gray ones. You will see pigeons with blue-gray feathers and pigeons with red feathers. You will see solid-colored pigeons and speckled pigeons. Look long enough and you will be able to tell them apart, give them names, and get to know their habits.
Pigeons are special because they can fly very fast. In fact, some can fly 50 miles per hour! Pigeons also have very strong "homing instincts" that help them find their way back from far away. Pigeons make great pets, too. Many people build little houses called "coops" for pigeons in their backyards or on rooftops. They let their pet pigeons fly free because, unlike canaries or parrots, pigeons will come back home.
There is one other thing that is special about pigeons. This is the fact that bird scientists know less about city pigeons than they do about many other wild birds. It is surprising that such a common bird is such a mystery. But because they are everywhere, scientists seem to have overlooked them.
Only recently did many scientists realize how interesting pigeons are. They have many questions about them. For example, they want to know why pigeons come in so many colors. They want to know how pigeons choose their mates. These questions are important because the answers will tell us not only about pigeons but about birds in general. The answers also will help us learn more about other wildlife, about our land and skies, and about ourselves as "human animals."









Taxonomy
The Rock Dove was first described by Gmelin in 1789.^[8] The genus name Columba is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek κόλυμβος (kolumbos), "a diver", from κολυμβάω (kolumbao), "dive, plunge headlong, swim".^[9] Aristophanes (Birds, 304) and others use the word κολυμβίς (kolumbis), "diver", for the name of the bird, because of its swimming motion in the air. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin livor, "bluish".^[10] Its closest relative in the Columba genus is the Hill Pigeon, followed by the other rock pigeons: the Snow, Speckled and White-collared Pigeons.^[4]
The species is also known as the Rock Pigeon or Blue Rock Dove, the former being the official name from 2004 to 2011, at which point the IOC changed their official listing to its original British name of Rock Dove.^[3][11] In common usage, this bird is still often simply referred to as the "pigeon". Baby pigeons are called squabs.^[7]

] Subspecies

There are 12 subspecies recognised by Gibbs (2000); some of these may be derived from feral stock.^[4]

• C. l. livia, the nominate subspecies, occurs in western and southern Europe, northern Africa, and Asia to western Kazakhstan, the northern Caucasus, Georgia, Cyprus, Turkey, and Iraq.
• C. l. atlantis (Bannerman, 1931) of Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde, is a very variable population with chequered upperparts obscuring the black wingbars, and is almost certainly derived from feral pigeons.
• C. l. canariensis (Bannerman, 1914) of the Canary Islands, is smaller and averages darker than the nominate subspecies.
• C. l. gymnocyclus (Gray, 1856) from Senegal and Guinea to Ghana and Nigeria is smaller and very much darker than nominate C. l. livia. It is almost blackish on the head, rump and underparts with a white back and the iridescence of the nape extending onto the head.
• C. l. targia (Geyr von Schweppenburg, 1916) breeds in the mountains of the Sahara east to Sudan. It is slightly smaller than the nominate form, with similar plumage, but the back is concolorous with the mantle instead of white.
• C. l. dakhlae (Richard Meinertzhagen, 1928) is confined to the two oases in central Egypt. It is smaller and much paler than the nominate subspecies.
• C. l. schimperi (Bonaparte, 1854) is found in the Nile Delta south to northern Sudan. It closely resembles C. l. targia, but has a distinctly paler mantle.
• C. l. palaestinae (Zedlitz, 1912) occurs from Syria to Sinai and Arabia. It is slightly larger than C. l. schimperi and has darker plumage.
• C. l. gaddi (Zarodney & Looudoni, 1906), breeds from Azerbaijan and Iran east to Uzbekistan is larger and paler than C. l. palaestinae with which it intergrades in the west. It also intergrades with the next subspecies to the east.
• C. l. neglecta (Hume, 1873), is found in the mountains of eastern Central Asia. It is similar to the nominate subspecies in size, but is darker with a stronger and more extensive iridescent sheen on the neck. It intergrades with the next race in the south.
• C. l. intermedia (Strickland, 1844) occurs in Sri Lanka and in India south of the Himalayan range of C. l. neglecta. It is similar to that subspecies, but darker with a less contrasting back.
• C. l. nigricans (Buturlin, 1908) in Mongolia and north China is variable and probably derived from feral stock.

 

The House sparrow

In India five different species of sparrows are found The house sparrow ( Passer domesticus) is a bird of the sparrow family Passerdae, found abundantly and widespread. The house sparrow is human friendly and lives in rural and urban areas.Its length is (6.3 inches ) and has a weight of 24--39.5grams (0.85--1.39 oz). Weight varies with sex, females being smaller than males.  Its diet consists of seeds of grains, weeds and insects.


                                                         Males have a grey crown, black bib and reddish brown back.Their is a black stripe across their eyes. Hens are browner with a pale stripe behind the eyes.

Interesting facts about house sparrows:

. The House Sparrow, although not a water bird can swim. It loves to throw dust and soil all over its body feathers just as if it is bathing in water. The size of its bib indicates dominance of the male within its flock, the bigger the bib, the more dominant it is. During spring, they often damage plants with yellow flowers such as crocus for reasons unknown. House Sparrows are among the most sedentary birds with even the juveniles nesting not too far from their parents.




















TAXONOMY

The House Sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Fringilla domestica^] Later the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the Chaffinch and its relatives, and House Sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760same meaning. The Latin word passer, like the English word "sparrow", is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed The Latin word domesticus means "belonging to the house", like the common name a reference to its association with humans.^[32] The House Sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English Sparrow, chiefly in North America;^[and Indian Sparrow or Indian House Sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.^] Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England; spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England; spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland;^] and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North AmericaThe genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World.^[39] Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short square tails and stubby conical beaks, between 11 and 16 centimetres (4.3 and 6.3 in) long Mitochondrial DNA suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago^] Within Passer, the House Sparrow is part of the "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean "willow sparrows".^]
The taxonomy of the House Sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is highly complicated. The common type of "willow sparrow" is the Spanish Sparrow, which resembles the House Sparrow in many respects.It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the House Sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic^] In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation^] In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure House Sparrows to pure Spanish Sparrows.
In much of Italy there is a type of sparrow apparently intermediate between the House and Spanish Sparrows, known as the Italian Sparrow. It resembles a hybrid between the two species, and is in other respects intermediate. Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate. In the Alps, the Italian Sparrow intergrades over a roughly 20 kilometres (12 mi) strip with the House Sparrowbut to the south it intergrades over the southern half of Italy and some Mediterranean islands with the Spanish Sparrow. On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, there are other apparently intermediate birds of unknown status.

^{Where have the sparrows gone?????? It has been estimated that the population of these birds has dropped by a whopping 97% in the last 7--8 years.}

Real Luxury

Greenery is the real luxury.Today every modern home owner has all the luxuries that ease his life.But , what each one secretly desires is the luxury that can't be created-Nature.And in a city like Mumbai where do we go to experience the serenity of nature? But....we are one of the lucky few ( may be because of our past  good karmas ) who have been offered not just the benefit of living in a modern home but also the experience of existing close to nature.The promise of fresh air and greenery when you open the window.This opportunity of living so close to nature is too appealing and nature enthusiasts just can't  believe their luck!! And  SATSANG COMPLEX  presents a priviledged opportunity to live in one of the greenest locations in this area.The society has a garden of its own, comprising of different  kinds of  flowering trees and shrubs.And these trees and shrubs attract bees and birds.Birds of different  species can be spotted here...so also butterflies of various kinds and hues. This garden is overlooking our living and bedroom windows.We awake every morning with the twitter of birds. Few domestic birds like pigeons, sparoows and crows are regular visitors to our home.I had always dreamt of such a house..... and god has made it come true....and here i am smitten by a new hobby....spotting birds.I shall through my blog  present info and photographs ( taken by me)  of  various birds and later on of trees, starting with domestic birds.

true Indians

However much you have savoured the organized delights of the West, you begin to yearn for the chaos of home.You don't even have to wait till you land back;the disorderliness begins on the last leg of your return journey itself.Regardless of the airport of your transit, there are several signals which tell you for certain that there's a flight about to take off for India.

--                In the past one month, it had been wonderful discovering Pittsburgh and America for the first time , as exploring Newyork too.   Pittsburgh-The city of  reputed universities , museums,Parks  and its industrial heritage turned out to be much more than that...Trees are synonimous with Pittsburgh's image-they are part of what was helped Pittsburgh recover from the negative perceptions of its industrial heritage, and part of what makes it a preeminent green city. It can be called the Pune of America
     
                  According to the city of Pittsburgh's 2010 Natural Areas Study and an earlier Park Trees Inventory report , there are about 373,000trees on 900 acres in the four historic parks.* Green and white ash trees comprise over 14% of the woodland trees.*The red oak family includes 45,000 trees.
                    
                 The Awe-Inspiring Niagara Falls to tranquil country byways, Erie canal Locks to Great Lakes, from Lockport to Letchworth  and Buffalo to Batavia  invite you to be exhilarated by Niagara's beauty .One is drawn by the mist of Niagara Falls, at the oldest state Park in the country or perhaps aboard the "Maid of the Mist" boat tour.The majesty of Niagara takes one's breath away. The experience of the  enchanting niagara remainsever in your memory.


                Newyork city- The financial capital of the richest country in the world , true to its hustle and bustle of business activity with the  Important icons of commerce- +The Nasdaq,* The Stock exchange, *The world trade centre, The Empire State Building and The Historical Brooklyn Bridge which I had  watched  several times in the World war  centric Hollywood Films- I was literally walking over it. oh ! What a feeling !!!!


                                           And this experience couldn't have become  even better without the two- Purnima and Sushant, who played perfect hosts and made our stay in Newyork as comfortable as it could be.We couldn't have  asked  for more...........


                                      Varun , my son has fully adapted himself to the  american way of  life.When ever we set out for a  trip, he would be fully prepared with the map of that area, ...the bus routes, the time taken for travel, the necessary hotel and plane or bus bookings....a glimpse of a brilliant brain of a  physics researcher at its best.I don't remember, once ever inquiring about the bus number or any lane or any other info about our destination. We reached our destination without any hitch, though...........!!!!! .
                 
                   Now I was ready to return home, and  experience the qualities of true indians. My flight to Mumbai via Frankfurt displayed the whole of it.


                  The transit train taking you to your gate  resembles a Mumbai local. The same people have behaved quite correctly on the  american underground, but the old habbits kicks in within sniffing distance of home. There's the same milling and jostling on the platform', the same elbowing to get inside. No one moves considerably to the back of the coach.


                Again in contrast  to the orderly way we have lined up for museum entry or theater  loos during our trip , all semblance of a queue disintegrates at the departure gate.
 
                    Throughout the flight , babies will bawl their heads off to a decibel level only Indian infants are genetically programmed to achieve.


                   There is also one more signal, but this one is in our own terminal building. Airports have become swankier ; immigration is quicker, Customs is a breeze ( unless you are a Bollywood star); there's even toilet paper in the bathrooms. But baggage reclaim remains unredeemed.


                  nowhere in the world is there the same crowding as papa, mummy, Bunty, Pinky, whole tour party jam their legs against the carousel yielding not an inch to those jumping up and down behind them., the same desperate scanning of the horizon as the belt trundles on and periodically sighs to a halt , as if it were the cycle of life and death itself. Welcome home.

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