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I haven't seen a large foraging flock, however recently (September) on the edge of Lake Ontario there was a roost of about 20 crows resting in some trees overlooking the lake to one side and a field of goldenrod/marsh to the other. It was late afternoon and the weather was quite solemn but beautifully peaceful. They were totally silent and resting. As for other birds in large flocks - murmurations of starlings or foraging on lawns, ring billed gulls, Canada geese, and a flock of 12 vultures flew over my neighbourhood late summer.
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1. I haven't noticed any foraging flocks too much where I live, but close to the nearby city of Watertown, NY, I have observed large forager groups on the outskirts of the city during the day in fall/winter, mostly near cleared off farm fields. The last several winters the city has hired a company to then come and break up large groups of crows that then return to the city at night. I can observe this behavior when I am driving mostly, and you can actually see the crows heading back into the city when night comes. 2. I have seen other groups of blackbirds do the same in late summer/fall, such as starlings, both in town and out in the fields. In spring large blackbird groups can be observed with some of the returning species, like grackles and red-winged blackbirds together in the same group. Now that's a noisy congregation!
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#1 I worked with a specific family of crows along north Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. "My" crows recognized a few calls and would respond to me. However, in the spring and fall I would notice larger gatherings of crows up and down the lakeshore. When I would give out the calls my family recognized, inevitably one or two or more crows would respond, and usually come to see what I was doing. This behavior would lead others in the larger flock to also become curious and approach me. This indication of detailed communications between different families was amazing to me.
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How cool is that!
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Yeah, in the evening they steam south past my house to their special spot down by the water. There is a wetlands by where they hang out in the evening, but there is also a four lane road. Lots of trees. Tall trees. The flock is huge -- a couple of hundred. Mostly see this in the fall but maybe that is just cause I am outside and notice. Here in the northwest we have snow geese that flock and swans (trumpeter?).
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I live in Beaverton, Oregon. My crow family visits my back yard every day for scraps and I have observed them for about 6 years. This summer, there was mom, dad and 3 youngsters begging for food. At times I have seen approximately 10-15 individuals waiting for handouts. I take out breakfast for them every morning and sometimes in the evening. One particular crow sits on my fence, patiently waiting. This crow will make a "clicking" sound at me, in an attempt to communicate. I have seen the youngsters sitting together on the grass observing their parents searching for grubs. There are large flocks of crows occupying trees in downtown Portland that are quite amazing to see during the evening.
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There is a fairly constant size group/family group of a bout 10-12 Crows that spend most of the daylight hours in my neighborhood. There are quite a few tall Oaks and Pines as well as a lot of shrubbery - suburban landscape with fences between yards and lots of bird feeders and bird baths. They seem to be around all year, probably because I live in North East FL. As far as larger flocks, I have noticed in the past at my last job when I would be driving home around 5-5:30 pm, large groups of Crows would be coming West to East toward a large stand of very tall trees near the edge of a business park. Thought maybe they were going there to roos or it might have been a " meet up area" before all flying off to roost.
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Each of the last 2 Octobers I've seen 2-300 crows flying near Pueblo, CO. They are spread out, seemingly migrating towards the southeast. Twice each year we get flocks of Yellow-headed Blackbirds migrating through Otero County, CO, they hang around cattle feed lots for a week or so. But what I want to know, seemingly they all have yellow heads and are therefore all males. Or am I wrong about that? Where are the females?
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Hello Larry, Are you looking at these flocks with the naked eye or with binoculars or a scope? During Spring migration the male Yellow-headed Blackbirds migrate earlier than the females and arrive on their breeding grounds a full 7-14 days ahead of the females. However, females do have yellow on the head. The females have a duller yellow on the head and sometimes bright yellow only on the face and bib area. From a distance or without optics both males and females might look similarly yellow-headed. Males have brighter yellow on head,face, and chest. However since the males migrate sooner than females in the Spring you might be seeing a migrating flock of only males. Males arrive earlier than females in order to establish territories. Furthermore the northernmost wintering populations are mostly males and the southernmost wintering populations are females. Range Map for Yellow-headed Blackbirds
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I notice 20 - 30 birds (crows) foraging in peoples' yards up at the Cape (Cod) in the late summer, early fall. They were wary of people but easy to watch from the car by the curb. They fly down and back to usually borders of high pine trees. These kind of flocks are common on our part of the Cape. The other birds I notice on Cape Cod that form large flocks are a kind of swallow that form large swarming and swooping flocks around Labor Day weekend - they congregate for a short time - one or two days - then disappear.
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I am originally from Massachusetts but now live in Georgia. When I was in MA, I remember seeing (and hearing about) very large flocks of crows going to roost in the evening. This would be in the fall and the winter. People often complained about them. In GA, I have not witnessed such large flocks. It may be because I don't live in an area where large roosts form. Is is possible that birds in the southeast don't form the massive flocks I've seen in the Northeast? I realize I am talking about a roost here and not a "socializing" flock. Both in MA and in GA I have seen large flocks of red-winged blackbirds, often in early spring. I also used to see massive flocks of starlings going to roost in MA.
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Hi Diane, That is a good question about roosts and regions. American Crows do form large roosting flocks in the winter in Georgia, so you must not have been at the right place and time to see one. The roosts are at night. The largest flock in the eBird records for Georgia is 1,100 crows at Fite Bend Rd. (Gordon County) on Dec. 31, 2013. Near some silos, and agriculture fields. For this year the largest flock was reported to eBird so far was 600 crows on January 4th, 2019 on Trimble Hollow Road near the intersection with Rt 3/41 north of Adairsville, GA. This is agriculture field. In 2018 the largest American Crow roost was 160 crows on Brandon Farm & Taff Road, East of Stilesboro on Feb. 2, 2018. This spot is by some animal barns and agriculture fields. It can be sometimes very hard to find the crow roosts in smaller cities or in the country as they happen at night and sometimes you just have to happen upon them. People don't report them to eBird as much as they might other types of birds and people don't do as much night time eBirding either. Even here in Ithaca, NY where we study the crows it can take us days, weeks, or months of driving around to find the crow roost in the winter. However that is because we don't keep looking every single night. It typically takes me from 1-7 different attempts to find the roost in winter. The instructor isn't available this week but when he returns I'll ask him if a regional difference in roost sizes has been noticed. Thanks for asking. Given that the three high counts mentioned above for Georgia were near agriculture fields these might have been foraging flocks instead of night roosts but I don't have the time of day of the reports handy. Too find where the high counts of crows have been spotted in your state or county go to ebird.org/explore High Count page and put in your location. Then it asks the date range. Once you get that data scroll down until you see American Crow.
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1) I haven’t particularly noticed large groups of crows in my area. 2) I have noticed large groups of Canada geese, house sparrows, starlings and common grackles
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1. The largest group of crows that I noted in eBird was 30 last Oct in Fort Worth. I had very few observations that exceeded 10 all year long. 2. We frequently have large flocks of vultures, enormous gathering of grackles/blackbirds/starlings (especially in fall & winter), cattle egrets. I saw a huge flock of migrating waterbirds (1000's) attacked by a pair of hawks over Laguna Madre (Corpus Christi) at Christmas 2 years ago. The biggest flock surprise to me this past March was a flock of 100+ American Robins in my neighbors' trees, and my holly hedge, at the same time 200+ Cedar Waxwings occupied the remaining trees on either side of my yard. The trees were just smothered in birds and the noise was unbelievable. I didn't know that Robins flocked up in winter. The robins stayed in the area for several days before moving on. There were very few holly berries left by the time everyone left. Some robins even tried to play hummingbird to reach berries on the sides of the hedge.
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I was on an organized birding trip to Colorado this April, and we encountered a huge and noisy mixed flock in a stockyard in southeastern Colorado. Though there were multiple species, they seemed to group with their own kind within the larger congregation. Our guide created an eBird list with these estimates: 150 Yellow-headed Blackbirds, 50 Red-winged Blackbirds, 300 starlings and 5 Common Grackles, adding 300 more birds as “blackbird sp” because it was impossible to ID them all in such a mass! We had a phenomenal crow roost here in the Northeast this past winter that was mind-blowing. It was along the Merrimack River in Lawrence, Massachusetts right among the old mill buildings. A nightly extravaganza of many thousands of crows streaming in to roost the night.
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I see hudreds of them in cornfields outside of town
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I've seen moderate sized groups foraging on lawns and around houses, but never large flocks of 200 or so. I do see enormous congregations in the evenings as they head for roosts or just gather and talk. We do have enormous flocks of gulls who head to the landfills every morning.
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Ques. #1 - I’ve seen large groups of black birds on lawns pecking in the grass. But, I think they might be too small. Could it be a flock of baby crows?
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Once baby crows are able to fly (and join a flock like the one on your lawn), they are the same size as adult crows. In fact, this is true of most birds. Birds old enough to fly have also grown to their adult size. I suspect your flocks of smaller birds are either blackbirds or grackles, or starlings, or a mix of all of the above! Regardless of species, they are amazing to watch.
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I have seen large gatherings of crows at Audubon Park and close to the park in a tree by the Mississippi river. Audubon attracts a lot of birds all year around. We can almost always find big groups of ibises there. Once in spring when I was walking my dog we saw a group of little parrots descend on a Japanese plum tree. They were very noisy and very beautiful. I’d heard about that flock, but that was the only time I’ve seen them.
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I. No. 2. Canadian geese, Florida Sandhill Cranes, blackbirds, Purple Martins, Robins
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1. I have a family of crows that I have watched in my yard that appear to be teaching the younger generations to forage during the summer. I have seen a flock foraging in corn fields once the crop has been cut in the fall. 2. Last fall while looking for snow geese during their migration and stop over in the Lake Champlain Valley, I witnessed a huge flock of red-winged blackbirds. They literally blackened the sky where they flew. They landed in several large trees that had shed there leaves and filled them. When they were in flight they flew in such tight formation they appeared to be an art form. I also regularly see flocks of Canada geese, cedar waxwings, blue jays, and turkeys, but no where near the size of the crows, snow geese, or red-winged blackbirds.
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I have noticed foraging flocks in farm fields in the fall. The most common flocks I see are of Canada geese: in school athletic fields, on golf courses, or by the river.
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I have seen large groups but I don't know that they were foraging as they were not on the ground. It was more like a "meeting" in the sycamore behind my yard. I believe it was fall or early winter because the tree was bare of leaves. The other flocks that I have seen in my yard were wild parrots and Cedar wax wings. I have also seen groups of pigeons and black birds "brewers?" or "red wing?" on the now weed covered ex dump that is out by the San Francisco bay.
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