Thursday, January 10, 2013
Crows Roosting in Minneapolis
Posted by Kirk
I was recently interviewed on WCCO talking about all of the crows roosting in Minneapolis.
The winter roost is really incredible to witness. You can head into the city in the evening, grab some dinner and watch thousands of crows coming into the city. They come because the city parks are well lit and make a good place to watch out for Great Horned Owls. Crows have always grouped up in the winter to communicate as well. Since the 1960s though these small winter roosts have come together into mega roosts. It a a fascinating new adaptation and not one we are likely to see go away.
~Kirk
3 comments:
overytr 5132We had a small winter roost in our back woods in Northfield, but it disappeared. A few years ago there were 100s of crows in the roost. They all but disappeared. Now a few have returned, but only a couple of dozen. I assumed that the original roost was decimated by West Nile Disease. Certainly the Minneapolis roost must be open to infection disease, with the crows being in such huge numbetrs.
That's a very interesting take Dan. Increased bird density can certainly lead to spread of disease between the birds. West Nile wouldn't be a concern unless it was a summer roost but I wonder if there are other diseases that crows are susceptible to that do spread in the winter. Certainly we see problems with dirty bird feeders spreading disease.
I've been noticing ever bigger flocks sprinkling across the late afternoon skies -- many hundreds, if not 1000. Thanks for the explanation of what the draw is.
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