A River of Crows

During the winter, American crows will head to trees in late afternoon, before night starts to fall.

I observed this behavior back in 2021 as a beginning person interested in observing birds.

As I found out then while researching, it's a matter of protection, as crows are nearly helpless at night.  The crows gather in large numbers, sometimes in the hundreds, and jockey for nighttime position.  The unfortunate ones who are in the outer parts of the cluster are more vulnerable to night hunting birds such as owls.

I haven't seen too much of the gathering behavior since then - perhaps I was in the wrong place in the wrong time.

But, several times this month, I have seen groups of crows flying.  One clump (if I can call it that) flies overhead, cawing, on February 13.

Then another group.

And still another.  This Audubon article explains what I was seeing.

All you have to do to see amazing things, sometimes, is look up.

I love watching crows, but I'm not sure I would have been happy to have that river of crows alight in my back yard trees.