# Crows Gone Wild! What are they doing?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 10, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501 "2014-06-10T20:38:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Suicide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suicide)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/1 "2014-06-10T20:38:35Z")
I just saw one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I heard a bunch of birds squawking outside, really loudly, so I looked out my bedroom window to see what was going on and I saw about a dozen crows making up a three-foot circle. There was another crow in the middle of the circle, and all the other crows were violently pecking at the crow in the middle, it was some kind of mass attack, it looked like the mob was trying to kill the lone center crow…
My first instinct was to open the window and yell out and break it up, but then I realized, what if this is some kind of crow justice and I’m interfering? The crow in the middle who was being attacked by the others must have done something wrong, at least in the crow world, and the other crows were exacting punishment or retribution. I swear to God this is a true story.
Does anyone have any idea what was going on? Why would a bunch of crows gang up on another crow? Crows are supposed to be among the smartest not just birds but all animals, so I think there was some rhyme and reason to this.
But what???😕😕😕😕
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/2 "2014-06-10T20:53:17Z")
The collective noun for a group of crows is murder.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/3 "2014-06-10T21:02:37Z")
Perhaps it was after eggs, although I think by now there should be fledglings.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/4 "2014-06-10T21:09:14Z")
There was an issue of **Sandman** that included the phenomenon, with various characters guessing why crows did that. I’ve never known if it was something that actually happened, or if was a myth.
Looks like it happens. Thanks for posting the confirmation.
Oh, in the issue, one character (Abel) claimed to know what the crows were doing. The crow in the center was telling a story. The rest were critics.
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### Author:  [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/5 "2014-06-10T21:15:52Z")
[Mobbing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior))
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/6 "2014-06-10T21:26:24Z")
Are you sure the one in the middle was also a crow, like the others?
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### Author:  [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/7 "2014-06-10T21:28:28Z")
Those are junior high school crows, and the one in the middle is a nerd crow.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/8 "2014-06-10T21:32:57Z")
Crows are gregarious, and stick together in related groups. Maybe the victim was an intruder, and they were telling him not so gently that he was not welcome in the group’s territory.
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### Author:  [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/9 "2014-06-10T21:40:12Z")
I work at a university that has a world-renowned experts on crows working at it. I’ve met him a few times - he sometimes takes the same bus home that I do. Now, I’m not the expert that he is but I know he’s referred in books of his about crows to “crow assassinations.” I wonder if that is what you were witness to.
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### Author:  [@Suicide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suicide)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/10 "2014-06-10T21:40:46Z")
i’ve also heard that if a crow gets killed, no other crow in his flock who witnessed the killing will ever let themselves be killed the same way
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/11 "2014-06-10T21:43:46Z")
Clearly a “Gang Initiation”.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/12 "2014-06-10T21:47:36Z")
> [@Suicide](#):
>
> i’ve also heard that if a crow gets killed, no other crow in his flock who witnessed the killing will ever let themselves be killed the same way
That’s clearly not true, as it would require supernatural powers.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/13 "2014-06-10T23:02:05Z")
Ravens (closely related to crows, both members of genus corvus) have been known to mob other ravens to censure them for bad behavior – stealing food, territorial intrusions, etc. There is a corvid mob justice system that escalates punishments – first verbal warnings, then gentle peckings, and eventually the deliberate group execution of the criminal if that individual continues to do things the group doesn’t like.
In a similar situation (but probably not what you saw) juveniles also gang up on adults to chase them out of their feeding area, presumably because individual juveniles can’t outcompete individual adults.
Source: Book called “Mind of the Raven”
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/14 "2014-06-10T23:05:58Z")
> [@PurpleClogs](#):
>
> [Mobbing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior))
I’ve seen crows mob a young bald eagle and a peregrine falcon, but never another crow. What a dastardly gang!
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### Author:  [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/15 "2014-06-10T23:06:55Z")
From The American Society of Crows and Ravens:
> [@](#):
>
> A “murder” of crows is based on the persistent but fallacious folk tale that crows form tribunals to judge and punish the bad behavior of a member of the flock. If the verdict goes against the defendant, that bird is killed (murdered) by the flock. The basis in fact is probably that occasionally crows will kill a dying crow who doesn’t belong in their territory or much more commonly feed on carcasses of dead crows.
[http://www.ascaronline.org/crowfaq.htm](http://www.ascaronline.org/crowfaq.htm)
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### Author:  [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/16 "2014-06-10T23:12:16Z")
> [@carnut](#):
>
> I’ve seen crows mob a young bald eagle and a peregrine falcon, but never another crow. What a dastardly gang!
There are lots of YouTube vids of crows and other birds attacking lots of different animals and other birds.
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/17 "2014-06-10T23:26:12Z")
> [@PurpleClogs](#):
>
> There are lots of YouTube vids of crows and other birds attacking lots of different animals and other birds.
Yes, I understand that. I’m just surprised that they are attacking one of their own species. As mentioned above, he must be a nerd crow.
Thanks Accidental Martyr, that’s what I was wondering about.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/18 "2014-06-10T23:39:04Z")
**Accidental Martyr** …good handle/topic match there…
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### Author:  [@Suicide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suicide)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/19 "2014-06-10T23:58:50Z")
The ‘crowing’ or whatever it’s called lasted several minutes, and then they all flew away, including the crow in the middle, who was not killed
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/20 "2014-06-11T01:12:30Z")
The first time I read the OP without my glasses I misread about half the instances of the word “crow” as “cow”. Trying to understand which cows were doing what to which crows & vice versa was hard. The three foot circle of cows was especially perplexing.
Try it yourself and you’ll see what I mean.
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