Is this normal?

now that is a lot of crows, it is odd, it looked like large group passes by and then the few that were behind, seemed a little lost

reply to post by randyvs


Thanks! I think their flying North, if I am correct, don't quote me on that though I'm terrible with that, the sun rises behind that radio tower you saw blinking the little red light if that helps.

reply to post by ETeeTime


Thanks for the link, I have seen it other times to but it was around 4:30 PM. I have seen it at 4 AM and the other time at 3PM

There has been seemingly never ending procession of crows heading from the west, to the north east where I am, between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie.

Very odd IMHO, we've always had lots of crows around but they all seem to be flying in the same direction, not looking for food in murders but 5 or 10 at a time all flying at about 100-200 ft in the same directon, always. They do appear to be fleeing from something.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


Well that's odd. I am 29 never noticed nothing this crazy lol. I have always watched birds and especially crows and ravens, their one of my favorite birds. Just the way their flying is odd.

Originally posted by Tasty Canadian
I hate to be contrary, BUT this is not odd behavior at all. Crows have been congregating in large "roosts" in the fall and winter as long as there have been crows. I live in a northern Canadian town and am able to watch bird and animal behavior most of the time. This doesn't mean that the OP is wrong in her observation, though. Something has been changing, but it's not the behavior of the birds....it's the location of the roosts and the fact that more people are observing them.

Agree with your statement here. I live in Ohio and have numerous Cleveland Pear and Bradford Pear trees in my yard. For the uninitiated, these are the ornamental pears that bear very small, inedible (To humans) fruits that persist on the tree into spring, dropping when the new foliage buds. As a result, I attact flocks of migrating Starlings who frequent the nature preserve to the rear of my property and feed on these fruits. This is perfectly normal behavior for Starlings and my family and I have become quite accostomed to their regular visits. In fact, their visits pick up in frequency as we move through the months of February and March visiting almost daily. What is peculiar wbout this year is that there have been NONE. Not one single flock has graced our trees to feed so far this winter.

I travel a great deal and do not have a daily eye on the scene, but my wife and daughter certainly do and they are the ones who brought it to my attention. As a result, I have begun paying careful attention on the days I am home and they are 100% correct - not a single Starling coming to roost and feed. I'm left wondering where they have all gone? I'm also left wondering if their absence has anything to do with the reports of strange bird behavior and the mass die-offs witnessed earlier this year? Peculiar is a bit of an understatment at this point.

Thank you for sharing your video and your observations.

Thanks for the information, Perhaps that's whats going on, the birds are being more social, bless their hearts , it benefits me, cause I love them, their beautiful

reply to post by Darce


That is exactly what I have noticed, the 2nd day I noticed it, I kept watching and following as long as I could, they never stopped or landed, they just kept flying, erratically, but as they stated before maybe it's normal

i remember years ago when i lived in california. at dawn the crows would fly over head by the thousands!! it would last for over an hour, then at dusk they would all fly back!!!! very awesome thing to see

On friday afternoon I saw something similar in Oslo, Norway. I'm not a bird expert, but they looked like starlings. They came in from the south heading north, and flew just above the rooftops.

I have lived in Oslo all my life, and has never seen such amounts of birds in one flock before, especially not in the winter. There must have been thousands of them. The temperature was about minus 5-10 degrees Celcius, so it was pretty cold at the time.

The main thing you need to really watch out for is the smaller insects and bugs, they will tell you when s**t is about to hit the ceiling. When roaches and ants start climbing up into the trees and all of the birds "flock" away (from what i suppose is happening in the video) you can then assume for better or for worse that something is about to happen. Try doing a search in your area about data recently made on the insect population.

Good thread OP. I have been following the odd behavior of birds and other animals since they began to die in masses. The birds appear to be confused - hopefully there is some food down below that has them off their flight pattern.

That actually looks like the normal behavior I used to see over a parking lot about this time of year in Rockville, MD. It was a real showstopper for me every year. I do not work or travel there anymore so I don't know if the crows are still gathering like that there. My new thing as far as odd bird sightings in MD goes, is the now amazingly common sighting of large birds of prey here circling and gliding. I mean that is the way they do fly, of course, that is not what i see as out of the ordinary. What is unusual is how many of these large birds of prey we are seeing these days. I've lived in this area ten years total (moved away and returned) and I never saw these magnificent birds in such number before. It was a rare treat only a year and a half ago. I do not know what species they are. My neighbor just calls them hawks. She has no idea, either. I'm not even sure all if these large birds of prey are the same species. Some look much bigger than others, but they are all very large.

I went outside as usual last evening near sunset to call in and feed "my crows" - there are a couple that come when I call and I feed them peanuts. Anyway, when I got outside, I had to call my husband and son to come outside to see the huge amazing flock of crows just across the street. I've never seen anything like it and I've lived in this neighborhood for over ten years.

There were literally HUNDREDS of crows (maybe into the thousands, seriously - the sky was nearly black with them). They were swooping and caa-ing and it was chaos. Very unusual. Very.

reply to post by vampira309


Thank you for sharing this...it helps to know others other then me find this unusual.

reply to post by SheeplFlavoredAgain


I watched a video not to long ago in which it showed a hawk I think in the streets of NYC eating a pigeon, I found that to be a bit unusual.

reply to post by crazydaisy


They do look confused, that was the main thing that got me filming, I know birds fly in flocks but when you watch the video, they look really really confused and disoriented.

reply to post by CordDragonzord


Hey thank you! I will do that to help and if I find anything I will post it here, I haven't myself noticed any unusual insect behavior as of yet.

reply to post by otherwise


Thanks, I heard also of other people in Norway who have also seen this bird rampage lol. It's not as cold here as usual and definitely not as cold as in Norway, in fact it is unusually warm

I'm sure if you look around the web abit you can find a free MP3 to use, I just chose the 1st option that came up with the search....

Many hunters, large game, deer, etc..etc... use crows and owls as alarms "crows and owls" alert or give location calls for other crows to follow the deer and large game, not to mention there is an actual crow season.

From the noise and range in your video, my best guess is someone just got a new game alert caller, small lawn mower battery powered, cd, or tape operated, used mainly for crows, and coyotes.

I'm a betting man and from the actions on the video I would venture to say someone has a crow/owl fight "looped" or has a digital game caller scroll down through a few of these www.gamecalls.net...

Many poachers use crow calling, due to the high noise they create to hide other undsired noises, they dont want ppl to hear.....just a thought....plus the crows make short work of any clean up, from a slaughtered animal.