Following Si Guim’s account of his encounter with House Crows (Corvus splendens) when he simply looked at the injured bird, Timothy Pwee had a similar but more serious experience:

“Saturday (22nd April) was Earth Day and I spent the afternoon helping the Singapore Environment Council’s Waste to Wow! interschool competition. After the competition at around 6pm, I was headed down Victoria Street to the newly reopened National Museum of Singapore for a movie (Film Festival). That was when I got hit from the back! Now, I’ve been dive bombed by crows before, but this is the first time I’m been hit full force by one. Retreating to a safe distance, I tried to spot the nest (which I presumed the silly crows were defending) in the trees. It took me a while before I spotted a third crow in the bushes near the ground.

“Watching the crows, I realised they were attacking every other pedestrian. Especially loved the sight of a large tough-looking young man who got hit. He stood there for several minutes glaring at the crows. Several tourists exiting a nearby hotel got attacked too.

“I tried several times to grab the grounded crow which I suspect is a fledgling. However, I was driven back each time by the two guardian crows who would repeatedly attack my head and shoulders. Think I was hit about a dozen times. At least one of the strikes on my shoulders left a stinging cut though no blood was drawn. My shoulders have another three or four red lines that don’t hurt. My scalp was a different story. There I have at least two cuts though I didn’t realise it till much later when I found my hair had little scattered clots.

“Around nightfall, I made a final attempt at the bird with the help of a manager from the nearby hotel. While the manager fended off the attacks, I tried to grab the grounded crow with a tee-shirt. However, the bushes were too thick and I got tangled in the branches. The grounded crow promptly hopped out onto the road and immediately got rolled over - Ouch!

“Should I have left it alone? Well, its guardians were attacking passers-by initially - at least my attempts to catch the grounded crow made the crows concentrate their attacks on me, sparing the passing people. Also, after nightfall, I’m sure the grounded crow would have fallen prey to a sewer rat.

“Well, it’s now destined to become a specimen so its death has some meaning at least.”

Note:“I forgot to add that after the crow got run over, one of its guardians landed to check it for a moment before flying back into the trees. I then waited for the next break in the traffic to grab the corpse - and promptly got attacked again. On the other side of the road, I put the corpse into a plastic bag and walked back across the road, expecting to get attacked again. However, the other crows seemed to have lost interest once the corpse was bagged.”

Text and images (left fledgling, right adult) by Timothy Pwee. You may wish to check Tim’s link.

Comment by YC: This is an exciting account of sustained attacks by crows on passersby. I am sure Tim has the dubious honour of taking the most number of hits by these crows. Unlike Si Guim’s experience, extremely mild, to say the least, these crows assumed that anyone and everyone who were around were potential enemy. No body language involved here. Thanks Tim for an exciting account. Must have been exciting for you too.

Goh Si Guim had a most interesting encounter recently with House Crows (Corvus splendens). While he was walking along Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, he noticed an injured crow hopping on the ground with one wing limp. Being a naturalist that he is, he turned his head to take a second look. The next moment he was startled by a loud squawk and a smack on his head. A diving crow succeeded in its mission of distracting him from its injured comrade. In the interim, the injured crow rejoined the others who were all screeching around it in a protective way.

Si Guim was relieved that there was no loss of his hair nor did the strike draw blood.

The interesting thing was that there were many other people around the injured bird, all not paying attention to it except Si Guim.

From this experience, Si Guim now believes that crows are very protective of their kind. He wonders whether these crows can read body language. Did they interpret his looking at the injured bird as a sign that he was going to do it harm? After all, they left the others alone, those people who simply ignored the injured bird.

His other experience was at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve where he was once pounced upon by a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradisus). But that did not end in a bull’s-eye.

Note: My experience with a House Crow’s attack was when I handled an Asian Koel’s (Eudynamys scolopacea) fledgling (left) that emerged from a pair of crows’ nest in my garden. The fledgling landed on the ground during its initial attempt at flight and I managed to catch it to take a close-up shot. It was then released but its loud screaming attracted about a dozen crows overhead, all screaming loudly, so much so that all the neighbours came out to investigate what was happening. My further attempt at photographing the fledgling while on the ground was thwarted when the crows dive-bombed me, one missing my head by centimeters. Wisely I retreated indoors and the fledgling went into hiding. The screaming crows eventually left the scene and peace prevailed. YC

Thanks, Si Guim for this most interesting account. Images by YC.

On 19th April 2006 we had a posting by Angie Ng about how a House Crow (Corvus splendens) attacked and surgically cut up a rat. Gloria Seow, a member of the Nature Society (Singapore), read the account and sent in her encounter of these crows with an unfortunate bat.

“I am a member of NSS and I’ve been following your blog closely. Very interesting read so far, good job!

“Anyhow, since the topic has turned to crows and their hunting instincts, I am compelled to relate an encounter that I had with them. I was cycling through a quiet street flanked by landed properties on both sides (in Singapore) when I spied a group of about 6 House Crows in the middle of the street, pecking furiously at something. I stopped my bike out of curiosity and as I walked over to see what the commotion was about, the crows flew off en masse, unveiling their victim - a small bat that looked next to dead.

“The crows were apparently pecking at the bat’s throat, which was mangled and bloodied. There was nothing I could do to help the poor bat, which I believe had been systematically hunted by the crows. My theory is that it was probably napping in the mango tree (the incident happend at around 11am) when the crows decided that it was going to be their next meal.

“After snapping a few shots of the bat with my camera phone, I had to step aside for a passing car, and when I returned, the bat had apparently reared itself into a L-shaped ’sitting’ position, when previously it was lying flat on the tarmac. It was probably reacting to the prospect of being crushed by the passing vehicle.

“I did not stay to watch the crows finish off the little bat, which I’m sure would have been what happened after I left.

“I’m not surprised that crows are hunters too, given their advantage of having a larger built than most other birds, their huge beaks and their sheer numbers. The explosion of the crow population in Singapore also points to the abundance of food sources, which I’m sure cannot be just due to the rubbish left lying around, after all, Singapore is supposed to be CLEAN and green.

Warmest regards, Gloria Seow”

Our bird specialais, R. Subaraj has this to say: The bat in the photos appears to be a Common Fruit Bat (or Lesser Short-nosed Fruit Bat), Cynopterus brachyotis. This is quite possibly our commonest local bat and is widespread in all habitats. They are often the colony found roosting under palm fronds or epiphytic ferns.

The crows are efficient hunters, though scavenging where ever possible is much easier. There are many accounts of crows attacking and killing a variety of animals, though more often than not, they would target the old, sick, weak or young.

The House Crow is the introduced species found commonly throughout most of Singapore, particularly around the more urbanised areas. It is largely a scavenger but is also a true opportunist. Often, when some birds like herons nest communally, the crows will take up residence nearby and steal eggs and chicks when the adults leave the nests unguarded. As a result, the large populations that exists in parts of Singapore pose a real threat to native bird populations. The fairly recent colonisation of Asian Koels (Eudynamys scolopacea) provides the first known biological control in Singapore for this feral species.

The native crow of Singapore is the Large-billed Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos). This is a much larger species and is all black without the grey on the neck that the House Crow pocesses. It has an impressive bill and a prominent bump on the head. It is also different in call and flight. This species is usually in pairs (unlike the flocking of the House) except when roosting for the night. They are far less common and largely occur in the less urbanised areas including our forested nature reserves. While they are proficient scavengers too, they are also effective hunters. I remember seeing a pair of Large-billed Crows chased a fruit bat, that they had probably disturbed from roost, at Khatib Bongsu some years back. Recently, I have realised that they are not above trying new things too when I watched them trying to hawk flying termites!

Thanks to Gloria Seow for the post and Subaraj for the comment. Images by Gloria.

Angie Ng reports a most interesting encounter her husband had with a rat: “When I first noticed House Crows (Corvus splendens) in the Angsana tree (Pterocarpus indicus) outside my apartment window, they were sharpening their beaks on the branches and plucking the leaves. And I wondered why they were doing that! Then my husband related to me an incredible incident he witnessed some years ago in Redhill.

“He was about to cross the road to catch the train when he was stopped by a huge rat cutting across his path. Even before the rodent could reach the other side of the road, a House Crow suddenly appeared.

“It dive-landed on the rat’s back, pressing it down. When the startled rat turned its head to look up at what had pinned him down, the crow plunged its sharp bill right through into its eyes (and brain?). Deadly paralysing! Then it hopped aloft and as the rat rolled onto its back - or did the crow roll it over - the crow with legs apart, landed onto the rat’s belly. Again the sharp beak plunged in, and with a quick slicing motion, slit open the belly. Another plunge and its bloody beak pulled up and out some entrails!

“It flew off with the first beakful when passing traffic interrupted its meal but returned when the road was clear again.

“I wonder whether we could train our House Crows to clean up our streets and marketplaces of rats?”

R. Subaraj finds the account most interesting but added that crows are effective hunters when not scavenging.

Image of crow by Hung Bun Tang and of rat by YC.

After only three days trying to incubate their eggs, the House Crows (Corvus splendens) gave up on the morning of 28th December 2005. Thereafter, it was open house for the Asian Koels (Eudynamys scolopacea)! They were increasingly daring, stealing into the nest throughout the day, but the height of activity was always in the mornings and late afternoons, and one female even stayed in the nest for more than 10 minutes. There were two occasions when the male koel took an interest, hopped into nest, looked around before hopping off again.

Although the crows seem to have abandoned their nest, they are not averse to visiting it every day, and sometimes twice or three times a day - to check on the contents? Once I saw presumably the female pecking, pushing and pulling some of the twigs. It seemed to be tidying the nest or doing some house-keeping! However, on another day one crow actually took away some fine twigs from the nest!

I would know they were visiting because often they would caw but other times I just happened to look up and there they were! The crows would still chase away the female koels if they chance to see them approaching the nest, but I think they are losing interest. They behave as though they have another nest somewhere else. Lately, they sometimes fly overhead by-passing our tree. Female koels still visit the nest, though not as frequently.

And throughout the days I was home, a lone male koel would spend long periods sitting on the lower branch mournfully calling ‘koe-ell koe-ell’ its pitch gradually rising in desperation.

The nest looks a little thread-bare/twig-bare this morning.

If each time a female koel visits and lays an egg, we’d have more then two dozens eggs in nest. But do they necessarily lay eggs at each visit?

This is the end of koel-crow watching, I hope. Maybe I will still watch to see when the nest will drop its load of eggs!

Postscript:
Just after writing the above and when I was sweeping the floor, four crows flew up to branches near the nest. One had some food (?) in its beak, flew into the nest, moved around and came out before another crow went in. This crow cawed and fussed around, unsure whether to sit in or leave. While the other three crows left, this crow hopped to an adjacent branch, sharpened its beak, looked around, spied a female koel hiding in the far end of tree and chased it all the way to Lewis Road.

Who are these four crows? Obviously two couples. Is one pair the owners of the nest?

Contributed by Angie Ng, 14th January 2006; image by YC.