...A Roost of Crows ©

 

A murder of crows, from Wikimedia, “Murder Members”, July 10, 2009, Kurt Bauschardt, HERE.

 

During the summer, you usually never see more than three or four, or maybe at most, maybe six or so crows together.  But during the winter, just before sunset, you might see a large flock of crows flying together, headed somewhere.  Did you ever wonder where they are going and why there were some many crows together?  And if three or more crows is a murder, what do you call a hundred, several hundred, or a thousand crows?  A mass murder?!

 

Crows, at nightfall, getting ready to roost.  Photograph by Craig Gibson used with permission¹.

Why you call it a roost of crows, of course!

 

Just the other day, as I was leaving work, with the Sun already down, I saw some crows flying in the dark and landing in the parking lot, I could hear them too, there were a lot of them cawing, yammering and rattling their beaks.  In fact, there were so many in the nearby trees, that the trees looked like they had leaves on their branches.  What I had found was a roost of crows!

 

Roosting crows, photograph by Craig Gibson, used with permission.

As late fall and early winter arrives and the temperatures start to decrease, crows flock together and settle into a roost at night, roosting in trees that are large enough to hold large numbers of the birds.  The more crows in a roost, the more trees the roost will take over.  About two hours before nightfall, crows will begin to gather close to their chosen roosting spot.  As the crows gather, they tend to be noisy; yammering, cawing, playing, fighting, and foraging for food.  As it gets dark, the crows will start to move to their chosen roosting trees to find a sleeping spot on one of the branches.

 

Crows form roosts in the winter because, a large group of crows provides several benefits to the birds and experts on crow behavior think it is because a winter roost provides safety, heat, and better access to food sources.  When many crows roost and sleep in a tree, it allows them to share body heat and better withstand the cold winter nights.  Also, by sleeping together, crows get “safety in numbers” and can provide protection to each other and fend off predators such as great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, eagles, and peregrine falcons.  And lastly, since crows are intelligent, social, and vocal birds they can share the locations of food sources with each other.

 

Interestingly, where a crow sleeps in a roosting tree, says something about where it stands in the “pecking order” within the roost.  Some spots in a roosting tree are better than others; if a crow roosts at the top of the tree they are vulnerable to predators, if a crow roosts at the bottom branches of a tree, they are likely to get covered with bird droppings released during the night by the crows higher up.

 

So next time you see a large mob of crows flying together or landing in a tree, during the winter months, there hasn’t been a murder, they are just getting ready for bed!

 

From Wikimedia, “American Crow - Singing Sands, Bruce Peninsula National Park, Ontario, Canada – 2007 June”, HERE.

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ My thanks to Craig Gibson, who was kind enough to allow me to use two of his photographs in my article.

 

Sources

 

Dempsey, Caitlin; “Why Do Crows Flock in Large Numbers?”, September 26, 2020, [© 2021 Geography Realm], https://www.geographyrealm.com/why-do-crows-flock-in-large-numbers/, accessed January 17, 2021

 

Haase, Bruce L.; “The Winter Flocking Behavior Of The Common Crow (Corvus Brachyrynchos Brehm)”, The Ohio Journal Of Science, July 1963, Vol. 63, No. 4, page 145 to 151, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/76294248.pdf, accessed January 17, 2021

 

Sharon, Susan; “Birds of a Feather — Why Crows Congregate in Winter”, March 7, 2019, [© 2021 Maine Public], https://www.mainepublic.org/post/birds-feather-why-crows-congregate-winter, accessed January 17, 2021

 

Wikimedia, “American Crow - Singing Sands, Bruce Peninsula National Park, Ontario, Canada – 2007 June”, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corvus-brachyrhynchos-001.jpg, accessed January 17, 2021

 

Wikimedia, “Murder Members”, July 10, 2009, Kurt Bauschardt, Edmonton, Canada, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Murder_Members_(4459635043).jpg, accessed January 17, 2021