The Crow and the Starling

The Crow and the Starling

A Tagalog Tale… Retold by Navin

In certain parts of the Philippines, one can find the Culeto starling, a little black bird with a bald head. In the old days, it had a luscious crown of feathers. Here is the story of how this came to be…

Once upon a time, a crow sat on an apple tree, crowing merrily away. Though it had a harsh voice, it had glowing feathers that were as white as snow. The culeto had a beautiful voice and happened to be walking past at that moment.

“Oh hello Mr. Crow!” cried the culeto sarcastically, “Thank you so much for gracing the neighborhood with your song, it’s so wonderful that we’re all closing our ears!”

The crow was enraged at this mockery, “Look at yourself! Such a fine voice but a weak, puny body! I’d rather be strong any day!”

“Who do you call puny,” answered the culeto coldly. “I could compete in a race with an eagle and beat it!”
“You say you would race an eagle, but you don’t even dare race me,” preened the crow.

“I don’t want to disgrace you and destroy your ego,” retorted the culeto.

The crow challenged the culeto to a race on the spot, and both birds took off at once, running as fast as possible towards the clouds above.
The culeto, in its eagerness, flew so high that it smashed into the top of the sky, knocking out all the feathers on its head. The crow lost its way in the vast sky and flew too close to the sun; its wonderful white feathers were permanently charred black.

Because of a foolish bet between the culeto and the crow, all descendants of the former are bald, and the latter, have black feathers.