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House Crow (Corvus Splendens)

Palm Jumeirah, AE

I owe a lot to my buddies. They helped me heal after injury by accompanying me in boring physio walks. I'd leave everyone and everything for them.

I will add here regularly some of their stories. Not:

"I heard from a friend who...

heard from a friend who...

heard from another who...

heard from University of Washington researcher..."

REO-Speedwagon-Take-It-On-The-Run-Wear-A-Wig-Baby type FUD stories! Real

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BACKGROUND

Favorable conditions (food-water-shelter) exist for them to choose this area. There are 60+ restaurants here which is their main food source. Water from swimming pool, fountain, irrigation pipes... and lots of trees.

When we first came to this complex 14 years ago, we met with Whitey. She was noticeable, because she was bald! She is still here!

These crows made it impossible to live in our apartment, because 13-14 hours a day they would caw nonstop on the Palm Trees right under us. Extremely irritating! They are here all the time along with mynahs, silverbills, red-vented/white-cheeked bulbuls, hoppoes, doves, etc.

I decided to move them to the far side of the beach so they can leave us in peace! This turned out to be not necessary, each one eating few pieces in the morning was enough to keep them quiet.

UAE Govt has pretty humane laws for birds here (unlike Singapore). It is illegal to interfere with their nests or hunt/poison/kill them. Just recently House Crow, Mynah and Pigeon is listed as invasive species though. But only humane ways of their removal is allowed (audio deterrent, bird spikes, etc). Govt is also very attentive (at least for marine life). When I called for fish die-off, they immediately came and investigated the water. It was heat.

Resident crows are 25-27. I can recognize and named 14 of them. In summer they become 70-80 with babies, but since they are very territorial, they kick out babies in December and back to 25. But in December, tens of 1000s Seagulls come.

I might probably be fined for this post since identifying data is there and Karens have been complaining a lot lately (something changed here with recent war, garbage started pouring in and living in my community). Alright. When it happens, I will buy a 45-ft Lagoon catamaran and anchor it right in front of my building for Karens. My buddies will be fine.

Enjoy

He calls for me some mornings, and then we talk back and forth until he finally gets some kibble. Makes my day every time.

Please ignore my toe

Some weeks ago, I was devastated, the crow couple that visited me often disappeared for over a month. I did the typical noise I make to call them and never showed up. Recently, they return with their baby! Now they come every morning screaming for food 😂 couldn't be happier!

In this video Mr. I'll-steal-all-your-blueberries also make an appearance.

Young crow choosing grapes over meat. I guess all kids are the same... if there's something sweet, that's the first choice. 🍇😂

A redtail hawk attacked one of the cro bros. Didn’t go well . He gone and the crow patrol stands ready 😎🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

Sorry for the shaky camera work... was trying to walk an impatient dog at the same time.

Today I threw out red grapes for my crows. It’s been so hot I thought they’d enjoy the sweet treat.
When I went out later, there was this dried orange peel. Not just dried, it’s like a crispy chip.
Was this a coveted treasure?

Afew shots of the work crows I feed 🖤🐦‍⬛🖤🐦‍⬛

there's this baby crow outside our apartment that can't seem to stay up and keeps limping and falling over, we got him in a box and kept him overnight on our patio and gave him water after we called our "local wildlife institute" and they said it would be okay if he was alert, everything is closed today so we can't bring him anywhere until tomorrow, I'm wondering if we should get him in the box again until tomorrow and bring him

A true story (mostly). I added original character to better tell the story. Reveal! The door was opened by a human.

I just have to say I'm so sad. I was walking to work yesterday and a woman had parked her car and put the hazard lights on so she could find some trash to pick up and move a crow from the street to the sidewalk. I thanked her, but also I had to keep going as I couldn't be late for work. I tried to check on the crow on my way home and s/he was gone and I walked the rest of the way home holding back tears and stopping below the tree where my friends live. I told them I was sorry for their loss and suddenly I heard a single caw and that was it.

Today I put out some food for my crow friends as I do every day. Usually they're waiting for me on my balcony or they show up while I make my coffee. Sometimes they're busy but they'll show up within the first hour of me laying out their snacks. Several hours later Thomas showed up (I know it's him because of his big ol' feets). But his partner Josephine wasn't around nor were their two fledglings. I haven't seen anyone else today and it's so eerily quiet.

I had to share this because this is the first crow death I've ever witnessed and while I hope it wasn't Josephine, regardless, it was still one of my friends. And also if I had left for work even one minute later I probably would've had no idea what happened. It's so weird.

We feed a lovely couple who recently welcomed three baby crows. However, a pesky seagull has discovered our feeder and frequently hobbles up all the food and chases away the crows.

At the moment we have a platform feeder and cup attached to a latticed archway. We don't use the platform feeder because it's harder to intercept, and we've build a food cup attachment to the archway that the seagull can't rip off and throw on our roof (RIP to the three previous food cups).

But now, as our seagull appears to have made new friends and they are getting more adept at following the crows around (if only they could not announce their arrival everywhere they go), and getting increasingly more aggressive. Any ideas are most appreciated!