A long, long time ago, the crow was a white bird. The coleto was black as he is today, and he wore a crown of feathers ontop of his head.
One day the crow was practicing his call, “Caw – caw – caw!”
The coleto came over and taunted in his sing song voice, “If you were in a contest for singing notes out of tune, you would win.”
Irritated, the crow responded with “You are so tiny, by the time you realize it was raining, you would have drowned.”
The coleto responded hotly: “It’s true I’m tiny, but I can fly higher than other bird! I can outfly the eagle himself!”
“Sure you can, I could beat you with my eyes closed. I’ll race you.” the crow taunted.
The coleto puffed his chest, “You should learn how to pluck your feathers, suck in more air and learn how to sing before you challenge me to a race.”
The crow cawed in his rough voice back: “Sounds like you’re trying to get out of this.”
With a flourish of his wing, the coleto accepted: “Fine! This race starts now!”
The coleto counted to three and the two began their ascent. Up, up, up, they soared in the sky, circled each other and onlookers admired the beauty of their wings spread out, gleaming in the sun. Soon they lost sight of each other in a dark cloud and flew on separately.
The coleto knocked his head against the floor of the sky, and the crown of feathers on his head was shaved off. The crow flew too close to the sun that his white feathers were burnt black.
Frightened, they descended back to earth and forgot their challenge to each other. To this day, the coleto has no feathers on top of his head, and the crow’s feathers are completely black.