# Crows Gone Wild! What are they doing? **URL:** \ **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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hopeful\_Crow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/da6949/32.png) [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/41 "2014-06-14T00:11:37Z")
John Marzluff was my guess too. Maybe it’s Tony Angell then. Whoever it is, how cool would it be to make a living studying crows? When I lived and worked in Seattle, I found several of the ones they had banded and reported them to their website. I hope I helped them out a little in their research. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/42 "2014-06-14T00:27:47Z")
Maybe the middle crow won [The Lottery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery). ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/43 "2014-06-14T02:52:04Z")
> [@Hopeful\_Crow](#): > > John Marzluff was my guess too. Maybe it’s Tony Angell then. Whoever it is, how cool would it be to make a living studying crows? When I lived and worked in Seattle, I found several of the ones they had banded and reported them to their website. I hope I helped them out a little in their research. How about this guy? (Kevin J. McGowan) [http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/](http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/44 "2014-06-14T04:45:43Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Aboard public transportation? It is to laugh. Why? UW has excellent bus service. Perhaps he prefers the freedom and convenience of it to the shackles of the automobile. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/45 "2014-06-14T04:55:02Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > 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. “A Parliament of Rooks,” Vol 2 40. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/46 "2014-06-14T11:23:00Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Why? UW has excellent bus service. Perhaps he prefers the freedom and convenience of it to the shackles of the automobile. A chauffeur driven automobile is pretty shackle less. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/47 "2014-11-23T16:02:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A chauffeur driven automobile is pretty shackle less. I bought a book from Marzluff’s table yesterday (_Subirdia_), and mentioned this exchange. He told me they get some pretty good conversations going on the bus. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/48 "2014-11-23T16:30:09Z")
Late to this party and I have no citations, but I live with [an unkindness](http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/about/faqs/animals/names.htm#birds) of ravens (all ravens are crows, but not all crows are ravens) and have witnessed this behavior twice. I have always called it ‘caucusing.’ First, the birds ‘call a meeting.’ They all gather in one spot and set up a big ruckus. This goes on for quite awhile (also how I know what is happening). Then they brutalize the outlier. In the first instance I witnessed, they did not kill him (her?). In the second, they did. Both times, they remained up in the trees and didn’t form a circle, but they did surround the victim. There were at least a hundred, maybe more. After their attack, both victims were on the ground, one hurt and one dead. They did not seem to care I was around either time. But as I said, I’ve lived with them for a decade so am a familiar presence. I did not interfere in any way, just observed. They are fascinating creatures to watch. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/49 "2014-11-23T23:00:02Z")
One time I was walking along a semi-obscure frontage road in Berkeley near the Bay. There were a lot of crows perched on telephone poles along my route. You know that thing they do in situation comedies and cartoons where there’s supposed to be a whole line of people, but only a few people are available (reviewing the troops, greeting line, etc.) so the few people will form a short line with the far end person peeling off and running to the other end continuously, to make the line seem endless? The crows did that on the telephone poles as I walked by, all the way down that long street. They might have fooled me if it weren’t for all that flapping. 🙂 I honestly did not know what to make of it. Felt like a sort of honor guard or something. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/50 "2014-11-24T02:00:19Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > The crows did that on the telephone poles as I walked by, all the way down that long street. They might have fooled me if it weren’t for all that flapping. 🙂 > > I honestly did not know what to make of it. Felt like a sort of honor guard or something. I’ve seen birds do that. I think one of them farts. ---
**Author:** ![bubba001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f17d59/32.png) [@bubba001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba001)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501/51 "2014-11-25T03:30:41Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I would love to see a cite for that. > > As a teenager I went crow shooting - this was not sport, but culling. We stood under a tree where they were nesting and just blasted away. We didn’t even bother to pick up the carcases. The following year the crows would be back. Around here, if you have something that looks like a gun in your hand, the crows seem to make themselves scarce. I have chickens, and I like having the crows around. I know if there is another predator in the area, the crows scream bloody murder. I have sat and watched a fox be harassed by a group of crows, they won’t let him sneak up on anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crows-gone-wild-what-are-they-doing/690501.md?page=2)