Hi! I'm your local neighborhood crow lady and I'm here to show you our latest line of crowsmetics and creams. Do you have a minute?
Just kidding.
But I am the crow lady.
I see you're in Maryland. Was this where you saw the crows? They look to me like American Crows, which are prevalent throughout much of our continent. Depending on time of day and year, this gathering could be a few things. During fall and winter most crows will roost together in large numbers in a safe location at night. They gather in large groups, sometimes stopping on their way to the roosting destination, making it a pre-roost. They can't see well to fly at night, so these roosters usually get together late afternoon and early evening.
Flocks of crows will gather if there is a good feeding opportunity, if one of their own is in danger or dying, if they see a dead crow (crow funeral), or if they want to haze and hassle predators like hawks, owls, raccoons, etc. They also converge for reasons not yet known to researchers, but it is believed to be a kind of socializing, as crows have a very structured society and culture, and are crazy smart.
As for it being a "murder," groups of crows are scientifically referred to as flocks. The term murder is also correct, but this term was chosen based on fear and lack of understanding. In some pro-crow groups the term is no longer PC, but it's still big in the dark art world.
Hope you don't mind me vomiting my #procrowpropaganda all over your post. I can never resist an opportunity to talk about them to anyone who seems remotely curious.
Not only do I not mind, is is the kind of awesome info I was hoping someone might share! I hope you don’t mind, I added excerpts from your comment to the original content!
Seriously, thank you for this, I really love learning about our feathered friends!
…and yep, these were spotted in Maryland :)
Yay!!! Birds are amazing. And crows, well, crows are addictive. They also make great friends. :)
I have seen a huge amount of crows come together specifically to attack and murder a bird of prey as well as take down larger prey.
Highly efficient highly intelligent highly mobile.....
And on top of it extremely hard to kill. I should know out of all of the birds I have shot I have only gotten one crow.
Actually I shot one and looked and was amazed to discover that with the small body and large amount of feathers most of my shots that I thought hit would just pass through the feather layer leaving the crow completely unharmed. All those laws of average eventually caught up to one crow though.
Please do not talk to me about the crows you have shot. Would you like if someone talked to you about the german shepherd they killed?
GROW SOME SENSITIVITY. I'M THE FUCKING CROW LADY.
fucking murderer.
LoL.
Facts are just that.
And they are considered pests and dealt with as such.
Oh I've got other stories. About the flocks that would murder the endangered hawks that lived in our trees...
Whatever. LoL