You were not invited!

A Great Cormorant has a disagreement with a Colombo Crow

Cormorant: I say Basil, don’t steal food from my little ones! My wife and I spend all our waking hours catching frogs, crabs and fish for our babies so that they can grow up healthy. It’s hard work and what do you do? Steal their food! That’s just wrong my friend. Just because we both have black feathers doesn’t mean we are the same and you can just help yourself to our food. See this yellow throat patch? See me diving underwater to hunt prey? Can you do that? Hah! You can’t even float on water. Try doing an honest day’s work for once.

Crow: Just relax Janaya! It was just half of a fish. Go dive for another one. You’re so primitive, diving and hunting every day. What a waste of time. If you were as smart and evolved as I am, you would just take food from humans. They leave plenty around unattended outside on tables, wet kitchens and bins. You can even snatch food out of their hands, it’s too easy. At the most, they will flap their hands at you and shout. Then it’s all forgotten. Of course, sometimes I get bored of human-food. Then I usually grab some fruits, insects, invertebrates or some eggs… out of other birds' nests.

Cormorant: Get out of here now!

Crow: I’m going, I’m going. See you around… your next breeding season… CAW!

Story of the Photo

The Great Cormorant can easily be seen around the Mahoora Tented Safari Camps around the Island due to their proximity to large water sources. But the Colombo Crow is not so prevalent in-and-around the National Parks as it prefers large human habitats and the easy food sources that are found there. This picture was taken in Greater Colombo, at the Beddagana Wetland Park when Dilum was doing a walkabout there.