The Bird Menace in Urban Mumbai

There are 2 types of birds that one can find in the area immediately surrounding my building. The Crows  and the Pigeons. Since we have a lot of trees in our residential complex, we have a lot of these birds. Which is a really nice thing, because you get the feel that you are living closer to nature and all. For some reason however, these birds refuse to inhabit the perfectly usable trees that are ever present in the complex. They refuse to build nests in prime trees and don’t seem to notice the numerous tripod branches that could support a large size nest even when it is full of eggs and then hatchlings.

Instead, they insist on living in the spaces of the building accessible to them and their friends and build their nests in the pipes and on top of the air conditioners sticking out of the windows. And they insist on depositing as much crap on top of the air conditioners that is avianly possible. And they don’t rest at depositing twigs and leaves, they go on to bring metal strips and wires that fall through the vents of the air conditioners to make a racket fit enough to wake up Kumbhakarana.

And that’s not all, then they lay eggs and when you go to clean up the crap on top of the air conditioner, you break the eggs and then you feel like a killer and a murderer. But there is nothing that you could have done, you could have tried, but you would have failed.

The only benefit is that they are so used to the urban hustle bustle that you can take good clos up shots and they don’t seem to mind, going about their business without any problem. Here are a few of them.