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Published on : Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Mombasa, Malindi, Watamu and Kilifi in Kenya are currently experiencing the irritating and invasive actions of Indian House Crows. At dawn, these bird if not chattering noisily to wake up the entire neighborhood, they remain perched somewhere, waiting to seize upon on various eateries or even snatch away food items from different residences.
They can be seen chasing away other birds as well or hunting their nestlings or even poking around through the garbage dumps to secure their meal before returning to their safe spaces. Experts have named these Indian House Crows as invasive pests. Even though they are not indigenous to East Africa, they can be seen almost everywhere in the in Coastal towns, creating nuisance.
These House Crows thrives majorly on garbage and has originated from India, as the name shows. Experts have studied that in 1947 these birds entered Mombasa as stow-aways on ships or spread from the neighboring coastal town of Zanzibar. These birds are non-migratory, yet they traveled secretly in ships, often landing in coastal towns away from their native ranges.
“Indian House Crows are invasive and are ruling the skies in coastal towns of Kenya. They thrive on garbage but have become a nuisance, getting into hotels and grabbing guests’ food. The birds are also displacing other native species that once thrived in those areas by raiding their nests and feeding on their young ones,” Paul Gacheru, a species expert at Nature Kenya says.
These House Crows doesn’t have any natural predators in Kenya and their capability to adapt to new environments with no time; they have grown exponentially in numbers.
The birds had spread inland to Mariakani by 1980, south to Diani and north to Kilifi Creek. These birds had already reached Malindi by late 1980s, and now thousands are found in and around Mombasa.
By 2011, the first House Crows were seen inland at Voi town and by 2013; the same were spotted in Makindu.
Keeping in mind their damaging impact on the environment, these birds now have become a major cause of concern for many, according to conservationists as well as tourism people.
“There is concern that these birds, which are dependent on human habitation and garbage, are fast displacing native bird species at the Coast. Bird counts have shown a declining population of other species within the Coast while there has been an increase in the population of Indian House Crows,” Gacheru says.
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