The Doves and the Crow

The story of the Raven and the dove is as old as the story of Noah and the flood.  It is found in the Torah and in Genesis 8:6 – 12.   Noah sent the Raven to circle and see if the waters were gone, and the Raven did not return, and so no one knew the water had receded. Noah then sent out the dove to see if there were any green things growing.  In the Bible, the Raven is an unclean bird, and the dove is a clean bird.

Anyway, there are no ravens in Chicago.  Only crows.   And crows eat other birds. Doves nest under the small bushes on our balcony window boxes. However, these skies of downtown Chicago are filled with Hawks, so the doves need to make sure they stay very still when they are nesting, and that they train their babies to fly very quickly, keeping them in the nest until they are large enough to fly away. We have not seen a Crow in downtown Chicago in 15 years.  But, just when the newborns, from a nest of doves, were about big enough to fly, guess who appeared?  The Crow.  And it is looking right at the doves’ nest.  The doves moved to the other side of the building. But, they did not move soon enough since there were two baby doves, now there is only one.  This is a pretty common problem, with crows and doves.