Domino, the Pied Crow

A photograph of Domino on a textured back-ground. 

Location : Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa. 

Camera : Fuji FinePix 2800Zoom 

This is Domino, a Pied Crow (Corvus albus) I was blessed enough to have in my life for a few years. I found him on the ground under a huge Blue gum tree, newly fledged and starving and weak. As it was impossible to return him to his nest, I took him home, prepared a basket with a hot water bottle, gave him a good feeding and waited. It wasn’t long before he was asking for food every hour and within a week he was happily hopping around the house, investigating an exciting new world. 

Crows are renowned for their curiosity, and Domino was no exception. Nothing escaped his watchful eye and his greatest pleasure was ‘stealing’ spoons and anything shiny and then hiding it all over the garden. 

We spent two beautiful years together until, one morning, I found his remains up in the tree in which he slept – he had fallen prey to a Serval (African Wild Cat Caracal serval), one I had been having trouble with for several weeks, catching my chickens at night. My heart was broken, but I am thankful that I have many wonderful memories from our time spent together. 

The Pied Crow is a Southern African bird that belongs to the Corvidae bird family group which includes birds such as Crows, Ravens and is absent only from areas of Somalia and Ethiopia, as well as much of eastern Botswana, the Northern Cape and western Namibia. It has become prolific, as its numbers and range are expanding especially in the Karoo. It often occupies savanna woodland and bushy shrub land, but it is becoming more and more common in farmland, urban and suburban areas.

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