A Crow's Nest

The title of this post is very simple. You may wonder what do I have to write about a crow's nest! A crow is just a bird! Oh yeah! It is just not a bird, but is one of the intelligent birds in the world. You would have seen videos or heard stories of how it finds solutions to drink from a bottle or crack open a seed etc. In fact, we have a story to narrate in our culture too. Everyone knows about crows. What is there to write a blog about it? I can read that question in your mind. 

In my previous blog, I had written about how an old tree was cut. Many birds used to visit that tree to build their nests. Crows too were regular visitors. Ever since that tree was cut, they started looking for a place to build their nests. They found a Jamun tree in our house. This tree has usually wide branches and is spread across several metres. But we had to cut the branches because of the presence of electric wires. The tree usually shakes so much even if the wind blows a little strong. However, one of the crows was determined to build a nest on it. Every morning I used to wake up to see several broken twigs, wires, pieces of iron thread, and coconut leaf sticks on the ground. It took several days for both the male and the female crows to build this nest. 


Like other birds, crow is also very protective of its nest. So, I had to carefully go to the terrace to stay away from its strong beak. Couple of times, we had skirmishes too :-)

Why do I find this crow's nest so interesting is the fact that they actually used most of the rejected items by humans, and resources from the nature to build its nest. I think most of the birds do the same. This action of the crows (and other birds alike) actually presents a simple solution to a complex problem of shelter. The World Economic Forum estimated that at least 150 million people were homeless around the world in 2021. That's a huge number. I have seen in documentaries and in person a few times as well, how other birds, reptiles and mammals use the abandoned nests of birds as their shelter. This sharing or clever use of what is available to protect themselves from predators and unpredictable nature, is something humans can ape from those species. There are several people who have more than one house. We can make such houses available for others to use rather than use them as "holiday resorts". 

Can building a house be simple? If we can look at the simple engineering marvels by those bird species or any other animal species, I think we can find solutions to our homeless people's problems. All it takes is to find a simple solution. Can these birds teach us? Are we open and ready to learn from them? 

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