Murder of crows — a short introduction to this piece.
Murder of crows: Quick Notes
A “murder” describes a collective group of crows. It has to be one of the best names for a group of animals that exists. But surely you have heard of some of the more colorful other ones as well.
Some of my favorites are a “wedge” of swans, for swans in flight; a mischief of rats (although that’s probably not descriptive enough!); a scurry of squirrels and an ambush of tigers–yes, I’ll bet!
But for anyone who has had the misfortune of living near the “winter crow roost” in their town, murder is most likely what they wanted to do!
I took this photo though a narrow wedge of curtain at my office. Crows are smart–if they know you’re watching, they’ll all take off and fly away.
On this particular day, a couple of hundred crows had flown in, along with less than 100 or so starlings. The crows are getting ready to settle into their winter roost as they do every year this time. If they are going to use the same winter roost as they have the past 2 years, it’s just around the corner from by office on the grounds of a manufacturing plant–a wide open field with a few trees near the edges for them to perch in for the evening.
It’s not a huge roost–a couple of hundred crows versus the thousands that can accumulate elsewhere. But the site can’t accommodate thousands.
There are various theories about why crows come together in these winter roosts. The most common ideas are to ward off predation, to share information and to find potential mates.
This story from Maine Audubon about one of the winter roosts explains in detail–with some great photos–what happens in Maine. But a quick internet search will show you stories like this all over with roosts as large or larger. It’s quite an event!
In any event, my little crows were just stopping to browse our lawn for a bite before they headed off the roost. Who knows what else they might have shared when they got there? Maybe a tale of a crazy lady stalking them with a phone camera from the window!
Murder of crows appears here to highlight key ideas for readers.
