Nearly 60 km from the country's commercial capital Mumbai and hardly five km away from Dombivili, the most crowded town in this district, Umbarli is now known as the ``village of crows'' among the neighbouring villages.

It probably has to do with the way the village is ideally located on a hill and the large number of huge trees in the vicinity, such as mango, banyan and pipal, that offer the crows a model nesting place.

The popularity of the place has resulted in a bit of overcrowding. The crows' daily routine resembles that of the Mumbai commuter. Like thousands of office-goers who go to Mumbai early in the morning and return in the evening, the crows fly home to Umbarli for the night. Again, just like the metropolis bursting at its seams due to over-population, some of the crows are forced tosleep on the ground.

On their part, the 500-odd inhabitants of the village love the crows and do not harm them. Prof Suresh Bhoir, a longtime resident of the village, recollects his grandparents telling him that the colony of crows have been in Umbarli for centuries.

Prof Bhoir said that the crows do not stay in the village during the daytime and even if some of them do, they never disturb the villagers.

Another villager, Dattu Bhoir, claimed that the crows have never damaged any crops or touched the stocks of food-grains. This has helped strengthen the bond between the residents and crows. ``We take care of the crows and avoid bursting of crackers during Diwali as they get frightened,'' he said.

Bird lover Vivek Kulkarni said that the crows at Umbarli must have set up their colony a long time ago. Once the crows establish a colony, they do not allow other birds or even those of their own kind but belonging to another flock to encroach on their area. However, this village also has a few other commonbirds like sparrows and minahs.

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), however, seems to be unaware of the Umbarli crow colony. BNHS members said that such colonies are found in various places, mainly where the crows get their food. The birds are usually found near garbage dumps because they can scavenge a variety of eatables.

Dr Salim Ali's handbook on birds refers to crows as almost an element of man's social system, very useful as a municipal scavenger and an indispensable ally to the often incompetent sanitary administration. The crow is intelligent, inquisitive and impudently familiar, yet wary and alert at all times.

There are various of types of crows in the world. The book has noted some of them as the Sind house crow, Indian house crow, Maldive house crow, Ceylon house crow, Jackdaw, Himalayan jungle crow, Eastern jungle crow, Indian jungle crow, Eastern hooded crow, Punjab raven and Tibet raven.

About the food habits of crows, the book has stated that the birds feed on almost everythingincluding eggs and young sickly birds.

The crows have a large, expressive and eloquent vocabulary that suits every mood and emotion. These include suspicion, alarm, anger, invitation to copulate (given by female), announcement of finding food, contentment and `distress' at losing its mate.

Over the years, the Umbarli villagers have become astute at predicting the way in which a crow will react. A school boy said, ``If you show them a black cloth the size of crow, or even a black plastic bag, the crows start making a noise and gather around the black cloth to find out whether their mate has died or is injured.''