Hundreds of thousands of crows roosting where they shouldn't be...

I've lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for about 20 years and I've seen freakishly huge flocks of crows a number of times in the area each year about the same time of the year. While being a stunning sight, it actually is normal. At least I think it is. Since I've seen large numbers of them almost every year for twenty years.

Edit:
Then again, perhaps this isn't normal for the area where the video in the OP was shot. With all the wacky things going on in the world right now, I shouldn't be so quick to write this off in the same manner as I've seen other posters simply write things off.

Over the years I've seen large numbers of birds come into the towns and cities when food supplies in the bush were low.. perhaps this is the cause of what is on the video? Being naturally inclined they may well leave areas of imminent danger to find safer havens too.

I also note that the Great Australian Raven (Blue-eyed) will call in extended family in order to protect trees and areas important to them.. it's awesome to see them in their hundreds circling very old big trees in the hope of scaring away bulldozers. Sadly the machinery wins every time.

reply to post by havenvideo


Where are you getting your information? Here in Aberdeenshire we have thousands of crows who do exactly the same at dawn and dusk. The roost in the same trees that they are in that video. Looks pretty normal to me...just that the difference is there are quite a lot of crows there, thats all

That video is kinda freaky.

It reminds me of Resident Evil Extinction or an Alfred Hitchcock movie

Maybe lay-lines have a thing to do with this? Earth's pole shift? I have never seen so many crows in my life all in one place. Maybe the coldness is forcing them to find a warmer location?

I've seen seagulls do that in the spring. They came back to their nesting lakes but at that time, the lakes were still frozen, unusual for that time that year. The gulls then took over the roof of a local mall, chasing and scaring the local ravens. They numbered in the thousands and after a few days, they moved on.

I'm thinking these crows were spooked from their nightly resting areas.

I dont think there is need for concern unless they are all lying dead on the ground tomorrow.

I have this horrible urge to start screaming, "The birds, the BIRDS!!!!"...but I digress. That's actually kind of creepy. Probably all this oddish weather has them as messed up as us.

Thats the largest murder I have ever seen....I have been around when they gather in the thousands....the sound is amazing.

I'll be honest 1st time I ever experience a murder of crows comparable to that, as a teen I was on Blue Microdot Acid, walking through a graveyard lol.... the murder was all around me in the canopy of the graveyard....and the sound is very very impossing till you let it in...i totally know what they guy means when he was kinda scared. Once you relax its possible to kinda meditate into it...very beautiful...even though they are "raspy" singers lol

reply to post by ETeeTime


I have noticed the opposite here. Usually there are so many of these birds that when they are "picking" off the ground it's like they are moving the yard around..but this year we have seen very few. Only a few at a time will land in our yard. I have also noticed that they are smaller than usual?

Originally posted by havenvideo
Just found this video Absolutely amazing!

I've never seen so many crows in my life! But the odd part is there shouldn't be any birds in that area around this time of year, but there are upwards to a million crows just hanging out! Not only that, but apparently crows do NOT roost in the area they are in regardless of the time of year...

What does this mean?

Hey there havenvideo,

I think you can relax ... I love Crows (Crow is also one of my Totems) ... we see flocks like this regular and looking at the area where the video was filmed it looks like ideal roosting terratory for Crows ... this really isn't unusual and I'd be very surprised if Crows never normally roosted there before ... perhaps the guy in the video just never noticed them before ... alternatively he probably wanted to try and create some excitment out of something very natural

Crows always roost in numbers from fall and throughout the winter right up until the breeding season starts ... these numbers vary from under 100 to over 1 million ... some Crows do migrate but just as many will remain resident to the area.

I found a great little site with lot's of interesting facts about Crows and their behaviour ... just so you know not to be at all alarmed by these beautiful creatures

www.birds.cornell.edu...

Enjoy. Woody

Once I dreamed I was a crow flying over the farm where I live. It was nice and felt amazing. I think I could be happy as a crow. In the dream I looked down and saw myself with a shotgun about to shoot at the crow I also was. It was confusing and I woke up. end of story

I live in North Central Indiana and I have feeders all over my property, so I literally feed thousands of birds daily. I have 5 crows that visit daily and provides me entertainment. They act like watch dogs for my property. They will call loudly when cats, coyotes or any predator is around. They seem to know what room I am in and make their presence known by perching in a tree near a window of the room I am in, they know I will go outside and run the predator off. The hawks they take care of themselves and provide me entertainment and allows the smaller birds to continue eating while the crows fend off the big hawks. I absolutely love the crows. They will make gurgling coo calls when I take out the seed daily like they are thanking me or saying hello.

Yesterday, I had a large flock of Robins, and other migratory birds here. This I find unusual for me. I have snow on the ground and I personally don't see a robin till March for me. I know some Robins don't migrate, but I have never had a whole flock of Robins with other migratory birds at this time of year in my yard. I am talking about thousands.

reply to post by electricalpup


I wonder about the harsh weather and large snowfall amounts. I think it possible that the birds may be banding together in front of this new storm as some sort of survival mechanism.

reply to post by iforget

Yes, to be honest this was my initial thought. We humans tend to look at things in a negative sense when some things appear out of norm. I am trying to look at the brighter side and think they are showing me a spring sooner than norm on the horizon. All of the birds and animal die off threads are tearing at my heart, so I am trying to look at a new perspective.

I believe it's a Crows' court.

reply to post by electricalpup


thanks

I agree when you think of how truly fragile birds are its amazing to me any survive the winter. It is not hard to imagine and observe some truly amazing survival instincts in their actions. Nature does at times act so harshly spring is on the way though and we both know that birds as a whole have survived much worse.

with the recent pole shift , could it possibly be the crows are lost?

haha kinda wish they made a flash forward season 2 now with the animal deaths and crows and that

I have seen unusually large flocks of crows as of late too. Several days in a row.

Originally posted by onthelookout

Also as a side note regarding my mention of a total lack of crows (& birds in general) where I'm at in the Seattle area, it's also warm temps in the upper 40s - so it's not like they would be trying to leave because of the cold. And if they're heading to places like Minneapolis, then they're are heading to even colder temps.

This is really bizarre. The crows have gone east to colder temperatures, the hummingbirds have gone east to colder temperatures. Is something going to happen on the pacific coast? Last week, I believe, the federal government of Canada and the provincial government of British Columbia held some mass earthquake preparation scenario where they had people ducking under desks everywhere at 10 a.m. Never in my life have I heard of this form of drill in B.C.