Sue

I have a wonderful flock of bushtits that visits my birdbath periodically.  I have seen up to 15 at one time in the birdbath plus more hopping around in the bushes next to the birdbath.  Those are hard to count because I mostly see the leaves shaking as they hop from branch to branch.  They are a little larger than ping pong balls so even though there are many in number the overall flock size is pretty small.

I appreciate your comment that you don't remember seeing crows 35 years ago.  I also live in California in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I moved to Alameda in 1988 and don't remember seeing crows then.  But a few years later I remember hearing a loud racket and walking out my front door to see what it was.  I looked down the street and there were at least 15 or 20 crows in a tree.  That was the first time I recall seeing them in the neighborhood.  Slowly the population has grown over the years.  Where did they come from?  How much has the overall crow population increased over the past three decades?