Crows and orioles

The crows ('uwak' in the Tagalog dialect) are always around spying on mother's eggs, chicks, and who knows maybe they are also keen on somebody else's chicks. Crows are known to be one of the world's most intelligent animals, and that is very prominently displayed in our property. They are also omnivorous, so eats everything available in their area. They can also hear sounds not possible for the humans to hear and they have been shown to have the ability to visually recognize individual humans. They inform their group about the presence of "bad" humans through squawking. Maybe in our property, they very well know my mother, because they scurry away whenever mother goes near their perch. She  usually throws stones to drive these crows eyeing her free range chickens.


The crows and orioles in our skies in the province are perennial enemies. Their fights happen when the orioles have nests on top of trees. Even if the orioles are smaller, they are good fighters too. They are very noisy, maybe calling their peers, and i see maybe 6-7 of them fighting crows on air. And the squawking and bird noise obviously tell of angry voices. I haven't seen any oriole egg or nestling stolen by the crows, but maybe with their size and intelligence and the distressed sounds of the orioles, maybe they were able to get them. Of course we hate the crows, but i am sure they are essential parts of our ecosystem. They also eat some of our unwanted creatures in the farm like snakes, rodents, and insects. 

Oriole's back view

oriole with one wing open preening itself very well

oriole's back underside showing the anus and the black patch on its abdomen

showing the top abdomen and tail's underside

Oriole's full side view showing the red beak, black eyes and black feet

crow perched on a coconut leaf scanning environment for food

leaving the perch for maybe a possible take of food

a group of crows on the thick canopy preening themselves after the rain