A group of crows is called a murder and people seem to associate these corvids with death and darkness. But crows are very social creatures and at this time of year they often flock together by the thousands for warmth, safety, and, possibly, convivial conversation.
Self-proclaimed "Bird Diva" Bridget Butler says now is a great time to observe crow behavior in Vermont.
"As we move into the wintertime - it generally starts in November and goes through March - crows start to roost together in very very large numbers," Butler explains. "And we can see hundreds, up to thousands."
Earlier this year, Butler counted 5,000 crows all together in downtown St. Albans.
"During the wintertime, crows kind of need each other," Butler says. "During the summer they're hanging out in small family groups [of] two to eight crows. And then in the wintertime it's really beneficial for all these birds to flock up. And we see this in other birds as well."
Butler says birds communicate about good food sources during the scarce winter months. They also find safety in numbers from predators like great horned owls by roosting together at night.
Sticking together is also a way to find a mate.
"Crows are one of the birds that start mating in the early springtime, so these gathering sites are a way for them to pair up and find a mate," Butler explains.
Her interest in this bird behavior led Butler and a few friends to start the project, Crows in Vermont.
"It's just this cool phenomenon. So I decided to capture people's interest in it and design a site where people can go and report some of these winter behaviors that they're seeing in crows."
Butler has created a page on the citizen science site iNaturalist, which uses crowd sourcing to get data on living species. On the Crows in Vermont page, people share photos and information about the birds they're observing. Butler says she's looking for a few different kinds of reports. The first is streams of crows in the air.
"So, about two hours before dark we're looking for these lines of crows that are all heading in one direction."
"You're going to see them in these staging sites playing with each other, talking to each other, fighting amongst each other. And if you think about it, this is kind of what we do at the end of the day, right? We all get together, we either have a meal together or we meet up with friends for drinks and we talk about our days." - Bridget Butler
She is also looking for information on where crows are staging in small to medium-sized groups.
"This happens a little bit before dark," Butler says. "Where the birds are gathering in a whole bunch of different spots. Now this could be urban or it could be rural sites."
Butler says the birds gather in these staging sites before they make a final push to their final resting point for the night.
"What's so cool is it's like somebody in that group makes the decision and then they all go to that final roosting site where there can be upwards of a thousand crows together."
Crows are generally not beloved birds. But Butler says we should rethink our associations of crows as creepy.
"They're incredibly smart. They're super social," she says. "You're going to see them in these staging sites playing with each other, talking to each other, fighting amongst each other. And if you think about it, this is kind of what we do at the end of the day, right? We all get together, we either have a meal together or we meet up with friends for drinks and we talk about our days. And crows are doing that same sort of thing. And it's a way for them to survive the cold winters we have in Vermont."
