Crows of Klang

 CROWS OF KLANG

What's that? The title sounds suspiciously like a sequel to Sir Alfred Hitchcock's movie classic, The Birds. Well, okay, I suppose it does. Honestly though that is not what I had in mind. It's actually just a flight of fancy, that's all.

Had he intended to film it I can well imagine the set. Kota Mahadi would have been littered with cables, cameras and lights. The film crew would have mingled about this former hilltop fort. Crows would have squawked and dallied amidst the tall trees. And the sun would have wandered into the western horizon, beyond the Klang River, which flows just a few hundred meters away from the fort.

About the time Sir Alfred would have cued for action, these huge black crows would have displayed their Notorious disposition. A horde would have swooped down, and not only bombarded the site and actors with poop and feathers, but would have inflicted a sufficient number of pecks to the head and body to create a bloody mess. 

Anyway, you get the picture. They are absolute pests, just the worst kind imaginable! Almost as bad as the insects they were meant to exterminate. Seems in the early 1900s pestilence had become quite rampant. Many plantations, particularly those on Carey Island, an island located in the Straits of Malacca, were ravaged with insects.

So, some of the colonists managing these estates got together. You know? "Birds of a feather flock together," and decided on a natural predator -- THE CROWS! Mind you, these were no ordinary crows. They were Ceylonese bug-eaters.

Can you imagine it? Ceylonese bug-eaters. Why just the thought gives me Vertigo . Here's Malaya, a country rich in wildlife, and these folks had a non-indigenous bird flown in...er, imported into the country.

I dunno. Far be it for me to say it was a bird-brained idea. Near as I can tell, there is very little pestilence these days. But then, that's probably because the crows out number the insects.

One thing is for certain, some travel writer should inform prospective tourists about Klang's infamous crows. After all, we wouldn't want these foreign visitors to fly North by Northwest thinking Klang was the site where Alfred Hitchcock spent his hours Spellbound . Now, would we?

© Breyel, Timm. “Crows of Klang.” All rights reserved.