We think humans created a new-age world of outsourcing and strategic alliances. It is not so. The wild world mastered such associations millions of years ago. As kids, you must have wondered what the stories about crows and sparrows or your nursery rhymes symbolised. If you reflect now, many of them have conservation messages and reflect the mysteries of nature.

Our neighbourhood house crow has been touted as the wise one. Even Emperor Akbar quizzed Birbal about their wellbeing. For the last month or so, my green colony is abuzz with calls of Asian Koels. They start chirping around 4 am and sing until the last light is out. Sighting and hearing the gurgling calls of female koels isn't unusual. When I spotted around half a dozen of them hanging around on the same branches for over a week, I was intrigued. They were keeping a watch over a crow nest on a Vilayti Badam, waiting for their babies' crèche to get ready.