S'porean man nurses baby crow for 1 month, forms bond, but now the bird's missing

Collin See, 30, knows quite a bit about crows.

But he doesn't understand why a group of them is called a murder, because the crow he knows is more friend than foe.

Said crow is called Buddy. He first met See when he was a fledgling in need of help.

Speaking to Mothership, See said he got to know Buddy on May. 21, when an "old man" offered him a crow "like some kind of Pokémon encounter".

He isn't one to take in a crow willy-nilly, he clarified. He'd been walking by the old man, who lived near him, when it happened.

"The old man told me he found three baby crows that fell off some trees that were cut down. Two of them died, so he asked if I wanted to raise the last one," See said.

The next month saw See slipping into the role of bird guardian, bathing, feeding, and caring for the fledgling.

But the wild animal wasn't meant to stay caged forever, and when the crow became well enough to fend for itself, it was time for See to say goodbye.

He released the crow near the void deck of his block, hoping it'd find a new home among other birds of a feather.

If you love it set it free, and if it's meant to be...

Buddy came back.

It didn't exactly come to visit See, but it managed to pick him out from the crowd whenever he was walking downstairs.

"It'd fly to me whenever it'd see me and after a while I started whistling to find it. There was one day where I whistled and it flew from across the road onto my arm," See said.

"I never trained it to do that, it kind of just picked up how I communicated over time and understood things because of how smart crows are."

"There were times where people saw me running from Buddy because it kept flying onto my head when I needed to rush off somewhere," he recounted.

A crow's individual features may be lost in a sea of dark feathers, and most people probably wouldn't care to look beyond its fierce appearance, but See could pick Buddy out from a thousand crows.

"Buddy was the only crow that would fly down onto my arm. I could also recognise its caws because it's one of the few young fledgling crows in the area and they have a higher pitched caw. Buddy's eyes also had two lines at the corner."

Buddy even became the subject of See's stand-up comedy, which is a side gig of his.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Collin Christopher (@collinchris)

Something loved, something lost

See's spontaneous encounters with Buddy became a daily routine, which meant that he keenly felt the loss when Buddy suddenly disappeared in early August.

For weeks later on, he found himself scanning the trees for the familiar face, but not one cawed at him or flew down to land on his shoulder.

See had no choice but to confront the fear lingering in the back of his mind.

"Buddy was missing from its usual areas, and about two weeks later, I saw culling cages in the same area," he said.

He couldn't confirm that Buddy had been culled, but the signs weren't very promising.

"Crows are territorial and habitual, they don't really venture too far in their first year. Also, there used to be an old man who was around every morning where I meet Buddy, but around the same time I saw the cages, he said it'd stopped coming," See said.

NParks says

According to the National Parks Board (NParks), if someone finds a baby bird that has fallen out of a nest, they should try to locate the nest or its parents.

They can return the nestling to the nest and keep the nest high above ground and away from direct sun or rain.

Alternatively, especially if the nestling is injured, they can call NParks for help.

NParks advises against bringing the bird to a different location.

With great Crow Man clout comes great responsibility

While Buddy is still missing as of now, See and the crow's unlikely friendship has found its way onto the internet.

He gained the monikers "crow man" and "Itachi of Singapore" when clips of Buddy following him became viral.

So far, he's been taking the new identity in stride.

"I didn't really have a specific reaction, it was more just amusing since I'd been with Buddy for quite a while by then. I got used to the weird looks and most of the time they came from a good place, so I'm pretty okay with it," he said.

He was more fazed by those "hating on crows" or calling them "pests".

The way See sees it, pests are distinguished by one of three characteristics: "They attack, they're unhygienic or they're noisy."

"To the first thing, I say it's very rare that they attack. People see crows all the time, but there are only a handful of cases and that's usually during fledgling season when they're protecting their young or just lost their young due to trees being cut down and their nests being gotten rid off," he explained.

Going on to refute the unhygienic part, See said crows gain a bad rap for being dirty because they are scavengers.

"But they actually spend a lot of time grooming themselves and will try and wash themselves if they can find running water," he said.

"The noise complaint is the weakest one," See went on.

He remarked that "nature making nature noises" should be a non-issue, considering that airplanes and noisy neighbours exist.

Still grieving over the potential loss of Buddy, See has been advocating for the culling of crows to stop.

But despite the sinking feeling he gets every time he looks up at the trees, See can't help but hope he's proven wrong about his crow's fate.

"I'm holding out hope that by some small miracle, it's alive somewhere."

Top images courtesy of Collin See