
This is another variety of crow from family Corvidae,that I have seen- Jungle Crow. They are all black and is distinguished from the house crow by the absence of any grey color on the neck. According to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp, the Himalayan ones are called Large Billed Crow(Corvus macrorhynchos) having wedge shaped tail and harsher calls compared with the Jungle crows of the Plains. Both of them have domed head, large bill and arched culmen. The tail of Indian Jungle crow is rounded and the legs and feet stout. 1
Calls: They are different from that of House Crow. They are harsher.Listen? https://avibase.ca/7357197F
Food Habits:- Jungle crows are known to have a wide range of food preferences. They feed on insects, bird eggs and chicks, while they scavenge dead animals. They eat various fruits and seeds of trees as well, and thus their role as a seed disperser has been pointed out (Ueda & Fukui, 1992). 9 Results portrayed that effective communication was present between both species upon finding food deemed as ‘interactions’, however Jungle crows portrayed more aggressive and competitive behavior towards House crows when food or perching area was scarce, thus portraying competitive behavior.2
Habitat:- They have a wide habitat range: around human habitation, well wooded country, forest edges…..3 During the day pairs may be involved in defending their territory but at night they may roost in large groups.4
MOBBING:-


Jungle Crow relentlessly harry birds of prey, mobbing and aggravating both incubating birds on the nest and any low flying large raptors which is persistently chased. ………It will steal food from vulture nest sites, even from under the protesting gaze of the parent vulture which has regurgitated food for its chicks. 5
MOBBING AMONGST HUMANS
Konrad Lorenz, in his book On Aggression (1966), attributed mobbing among birds and animals to instincts rooted in the Darwinian struggle to survive. In his view, humans are subject to similar innate impulses but capable of bringing them under rational control12. Mobbing, as a sociological term, means bullying of an individual by a group, in any context, such as a family, peer group, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online. When it occurs as physical and emotional abuse in the workplace, such as “ganging up” by co-workers, subordinates or superiors, to force someone out of the workplace through rumor, innuendo, intimidation, humiliation, discrediting, and isolation, it is also referred to as malicious, nonsexual, non-racial/racial, general harassment.13 Has anyone been through this?
MYTHOLOGY:-
“The crow, amongst the Buddhist in Tibet, is believed to be the incarnation of the Mahakala or The Great Black one– the protector of the monasteries in Tibet.”6
……”.Crows pervade beliefs of Indian folk. Its guttural call, especially when sitting on a banana plant, heralds the arrival of a guest for meal. Its acceptance of preferred food accompanying ceremonies of funerals or on death anniversaries signifies the contentment of the departed soul.”7
………………….in some places, Hindus have the practice of offering food first to crows in the belief that their dead ancestors or parents’ souls reside in the birds…………………. ……………..As for other beliefs about crows in Hinduism, a particular call of a Jungle Crow outside one’s home could signify the impending death of a family member or relative, and another that a guest is about to arrive. And, if any of this does happen (by chance of course!), then the elders would say, “I told you so”!8
Crows, and especially ravens, often feature in legends or mythology as portents or harbingers of doom or death, because of their dark plumage, unnerving calls, and tendency to eat carrion………………In mythology and folklore as a whole, crows tend to be symbolic more of the spiritual aspect of death, or the transition of the spirit into the afterlife,………………………… https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/c/Crow.htm
In Japanese mythology, this flying creature is a raven or a jungle crow called Yatagarasu (八咫烏, “eight-span crow”)and the appearance of the great bird is construed as evidence of the will of Heaven or divine intervention in human affairs. 14
In Korean mythology, it is known as Samjogo During the period of the Goguryo kingdom, the Samjok-o was considered a symbol of the sun. The ancient Goguryo people thought that a three-legged crow lived in the sun while a turtle lived in the moon. http://folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/topic/detail/5550
The superstition that black crows announce future misfortune is probably due o misinterpretations(which come back to Middle Age) of the presence of crows near dead bodies. There is a rational explanation for that. Crows have a keen sense of smell and are hence attracted by the smell of death. That explanation was not known at that period of time and this is why the presence of crows near houses where someone had just died was interpreted as a subnormal phenomenon. Ref:- Delacroix, Eva and Valerie, Guillard(2008). Understanding ,defining and measuring the trait of superstition.
CACHING BEHAVIOR:-
Caching means storing away for future use.Food caching behaviour has been noted in sp. culminatus.10,11 Jungle Crows have also been observed stealing non-food items like golf balls (Poché 1981),and even spectacle frames (Aitken 1900).
Hiroyoshi Higuchi, Ph.D.,Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo, says “In crow study, I studied stone-placing on rail road tracks, dispersing garbage on street, attacking people, stealing soap bars from kindergarten, and making field fire by putting alight candles among fallen leaves in forest floors” http://hhiguchi.justhpbs.jp/#English
CLEVERNESS
Here’s an observation that proves how clever the Jungle crow is …..



BOOKS :
There are some books that mentions the characteristics of a Jungle Crow and instills interest in us to read them.
- In the book ‘Blacky The Crow‘, Thornton W.Burgess has written”………………and he will eat anything in the way of food that he can swallow. Often he travels long distances looking for food, but at night he always comes back to the same place in the Green Forest, to sleep in company with others of his family.” ……………..” You know Blacky has a weakness for eggs…….. We’ll tease them until they lose their tempers and forget all about keeping guard over those eggs. Then I’ll slip in and get one and perhaps both of them. My, how good those eggs will taste!”
- In a poem ‘Crow’s Fall‘, Ted Hughs, crow decides to attack the sun because it was too white. This means that the Crow was ready to take on anything no matter how big they are.
CITATIONS:-
- Whistler, Hugh;Kinnear,N.B(1932). The Vernay Scientific Survey of the Eastern Ghats(Ornithological section). Journal
- Shanbhag, Anirudh P. et al. “Interspecific Behavioral Studies of House Crows (Corvus splendens protegatus) and Jungle Crows (Corvus macrorhynchos culminatus) on Mutual Foraging Sites.” (2012). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Interspecific-Behavioral-Studies-of-House-Crows-and-Shanbhag-Ghosh/d3b9069856bb5a56b1e14beef3c368a78756be1d
- Birds of Bhutan and the East Himalaya- By Carol Inskipp, Richard Grimett, Tim Inskipp, Sherub, Bloomsbury Publishing 4/4/2019- Nature
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-billed_crow#cite_note-11
- Crows and Jays by Steve Madge and Hilary Burn
- Vishnu’s Mount: Birds in Indian Mythology and Folklore.
- https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/006/02/0074-0082
- https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/the-bird-with-brains/article3007054.ece
- Diet of Jungle Crows in an Urban Landscape. file:///C:/Users/nicsi/Downloads/07_2-10.pdf
- Natarajan, V. (1992). Food-storing behaviour of the Jungle Crow Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 89(3):375.
- Sharma, Satish Kumar (1995). Food storing behaviour of the Jungle Crow Corvus macrorhynchos Wagler. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 92(1):123
- Kenneth Westheus Mobbing Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine. uwaterloo.ca .
- Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace by Noa Davenport, Ruth D. Schwartz and Gail Pursell Elliott.
- Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon (1953). Studies in Shintō and Shrines: Papers Selected from the Works of the Late R.A.B. Ponsonby-Fane, LL. D. Dr. Richard Ponsonby-Fane Series. 1. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 374884.
Amazing, Interested post and wonderful history, You have made so much efforts to write this blog post. I really appreciate your thoughts and work. Keep it up. Blessings.
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Thank you very much for your words of appreciation. I’m happy that you read them and liked it.
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Brilliant
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🙂
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Thanks for sharing all of this fascinating information! These Jungle crows are certainly bullies, aren’t they?
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Ha ha it seems so! Thank you for reading through and I’m happy you liked them.
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this is a fascinating post, I love all of the interesting crow facts x
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Thank you very much for visiting and your valuable comments!
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I know they are very intelligent – you are really an expert on crows Bindya. Thank you for all this info you gave to us.
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Thank you very much for visiting! I didn’t know much about them,until I started reading and got fascinated to know more about their intriguing ways. I’m happy you liked them
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Yes, I follow another blogger who has written to me about crows that he follows, though he does not write about them per se. He has said they will take a walnut put out for a squirrel, and put it in the street, knowing a car will run over and crush it and then they can eat the walnut – pretty smart isn’t it? Did you follow any of the adventures of Canuck the Crow? He was a crow who lived in Canada and used to go into stores and mix and mingle … he has been missing now since late last Summer. He had his own Facebook page. This is a story about Canuck the Crow who lived in Vancouver, British Columbia.
https://www.audubon.org/news/the-misadventures-canuck-worlds-most-infamous-crow
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Yes Linda I have heard about the nut cracking story and hv also seen a video on that. That’s interesting right? Thank you for the link ,I didn’t know about Canuck crow but,it is indeed mischievous 😁
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They are intelligent birds. Canuck has been missing now since last Summer and there was a reward for him for the longest time. He had a following and people loved hearing about his mischievous antics. I hope no one hurt him – they suspect he got into some type of situation that he could not get out of.
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Nothing bad might hv happened to Canuck
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Hopefully he returned to his kin, and just got tired of humans … I get tired of humans too sometimes Bindya. 🙂
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Yes Linda he might be there somewhere safe ,we’ll soon hear about him hopefully
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I hope he is playing hard to get Bindya.
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Or may be he’s somebody’s pet bird now
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That’s true too – hope he is okay. He was/is a legend.
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He would be
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Good article about jungle crow. Its competitive nature, believes in Hinduism and other religions, its intelligence regarding softening of roti and other information are excellent.
ALL the best
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Thank you very much for stopping by and reading. I’m glad that you liked it.
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Wow… Came to know about the jungle crows so much 1st time after that childhood story “The Crow and the Pitcher”…. Amazing; Keep it up Ma’am 👍
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Thank you very much Sir for your precious words!🙂
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Very interesting ma’am
Looking forward
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Thank you very much Becca
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Incredible maam! I got alot of information about jungle crow. Keep going with good work maam.
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Thank you very much Ankush.Glad you liked it
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