In case you haven’t noticed yet, the winter crow flock is back in town. They’ve been in the East End of Pittsburgh since at least October 15 but our daily rounds have been out of synch with their activities until now.
Today, with sunrise and sunset an hour earlier, we’ll see the crows commuting during rush hour and we’ll certainly hear them. Why are they so loud in the morning? What the heck are they saying?
Last month I participated in a live Cornell Lab of Ornithology webinar on Understanding Bird Behavior by crow expert, Kevin McGowan. He gave tips on observing birds with examples of what the behaviors mean. McGowan was especially insightful on the subject of crows.
Most of the time cawing pretty much means “Hey! Hey! HEY!” but in the morning crows take a neighborhood census. McGowan suggested their conversation goes something like this:
Hey, Bob, did you die last night?
I’m alive! So don’t bother coming over and trying to take things. And leave my mate alone.
In the quick YouTube video below McGowan describes crow and raven vocalizations. We don’t know exactly what they’re saying but we can often guess.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a wide selection of educational webinars that you can watch any time for a small fee. Click here to see what’s on offer.
At about 700 hrs every morning the crows fly together for about an half hour. Why is this? They don’t seem to do it in summer.
The crows’ annual cycle is to split up into family groups (2-6 crows) in the spring & summer breeding season, then gather into large flocks late fall & winter. Crows, like most birds, get up early. During the breeding season they are more secretive and try not to draw attention to themselves, so even they don’t make a spectacle. In winter they like to be loud.