There's a little bit of explanation for these great corvid jamborees here.
Wave after wave of crows will swarm together in tree tops, on the roofs of buildings, or on the ground until there are thousands of crows all gathered in one place, before finally moving into their nightly roost location to sleep.
One primary reason is apparently protection from predators. You don't see serious birds of prey around here all that often, but I know they're about.
In any case, I'm not complaining. The sight of all these crows gathered together is awesome to behold, and their caws have a comforting beauty if you're willing to hear it.
1 comment:
You probably know we're very fond of crows and have been watching their capers for years. At Point Pleasant Park in Halifax there's be great gangs of them at different times of the year taking over stands of trees in order to shout at one another. We never did discover what that behavior was all about.
Around here it's different. The major confrontations every year are territorial battles between the crows and the seagulls who are always trying to establish domain over the roofs of small apartment buildings. No matter how many times they get chased away they always return. Of course, we do have predator birds in the neighborhood and those are different battles for the crows - mobbing is a major one during mating season.
One of my favorite stories about crow intelligence is this one:
https://www.syracuse.com/living/2019/03/1949-montezumas-operation-crow-extermination-ends-in-dismal-failure.html
Post a Comment