Crows

[no1son]

Tens of thousands of crows winter here in Minneapolis every year. With the warm weather earlier in the month and then the recent cold snap and snow fall the huge evening roosts are finally coming together as hundreds gather up in the various bunches and work out how the whole thing will be organized and it is organized.

Crows from all over who will fight each other over breeding territories in the summer, work out a massive winter gathering for nighttime roosts, and they do it inside our city limits.

I was just sitting around this evening and idling just before dusk as one of the local groups assembled in my neighborhood on the way to the larger gathering. This just started in the past week or two and they are still not all in agreement. The racket is immense but if you watch closely the cawing goes around in a rough sort of pattern, not there aren't several "conversations" more likely arguments going on at the same time. There are chases and obvious arguments and even small breakaway groups that if not followed are chased down and headed back to the gathering. They eventually get it all worked out somehow.

Last evening I stepped out of my front door to find hundreds of crows in just the one tree in front of my house and similar numbers in other trees around. When I startled them, most of them took off and the whole sky was black, but a small number stayed behind and kept an eye on me. Scouts I guess or maybe a rear guard.

The whole process reverses itself in the spring as the massive roost breaks up in bits and pieces departing for their breeding territories with last years young very often accompanying their parents and helping to raise the next brood. In the past couple of years that has also been happening in my neighborhood with components of the massive winter roosts sometimes over-nighting by the hundreds in trees around some of the nearby houses.

Nothing crows do in groups is very quiet and some of those houses must have their windows rattling until the birds finally settle down for the night.

They are amazing birds. They say "dumb animals", but crows don't fit that description very well.

[Ranger R61]

is it time to eat crow

[no1son]

is it time to eat crow

lol if one was going for food, the resident pigeons, mallards or Canada geese would probably be better eating. The pigeons stay here year around, of course, but then so do a lot of mallards and Canada geese, even as far north and cold as we get. Some go south, some don't.

There are enough of them to be real pests and make a huge mess; it is illegal to feed them in our parks. This is core of a major metro remember; so if you do anything like that kind of "wild" harvest here be very careful not to get caught at it. If you get seen some good citizen is sure to do his duty around here and turn you in.

I have seen loons here take a fishing bait twice; we have them too in the summer even though they are supposed to avoid humans and keep to the wilder parts of the state.

The bird watching is a very interesting bonus to our fishing.

[PIGINTHEPIGPEN]

I watched a segment on animal planet a while back. Crows are one of the smartest birds there are. Smarter than geese and turkeys so they say.

[Cane Pole]

Do't look up at bald eagles. They drop rocks and other bombs.

[no1son]

I watched a segment on animal planet a while back. Crows are one of the smartest birds there are. Smarter than geese and turkeys so they say.

That's the way I see it, too. Funny how they seem to always have to run off to some exotic place to study them, when really all they gotta do is step out of the back door in so many places. There is one place in a park that I fish a lot that has one breeding pair and their territory. By mid summer there are three generations interacting and the old folks are real aggressive in protecting the youngest with the previous year's young doing patrol of the territory's boundries against other crows and humans, too. Then they change around in the winter to organize the big roosts. They know each other and each others' calls, too, who belongs and who is an intruder. Fascinating birds!

[Detailman]

Once heard my grandfather call pigeons rats with wings

[Phantom309]

I used to breed a few of these = pretty cool, but, messy ..................

[Hanr3]

Yea, Crows are amazing and annoying. While living in Colorado as a kid, I learned to imitate thier call, now when they show up around my house I go out and confuse the heck out of them until they leave.

[KAG]

I crow hunt quite a bit and they are the smartest bird I have come into contact with. They a whole social pattern for much of what they do