Crows

For some time I've seen a large number of birds, mostly crows, congregating at a very busy intersection near me. I pass that area if I take the bus home instead of the train, and I notice they seem to flock there around dusk.

Last night I did some shopping at a supermarket near the intersection. As I sat at the bus stop I looked up and, despite the darkness, saw hundreds and hundreds of crows packed close together perching on the overhead wires. There was close to - if not more than - a thousand. If something spooked them, they would swarm into the air, blackening the already dark sky before settling down. While airborne their excitement fell like rain for a few seconds; I was happy there was a shelter over the bus stop.

Crows are no strangers to the area, and I have seen flocks of a hundred or so, but I was amazed at not only their number but their attraction to this specific location.

The intersection is at 40°44'34.7"N 73°37'01.5"W

https://maps.app.goo.gl/BiGwjpxV8ujmYGGg7

Crows.JPG

The birds seem to prefer the area from about the center of the intersection to a point some 200-250 feet west. I believe they also like the area immediately north, but that was out of my line of sight as I sat at the bus stop near the northwest corner. There seems to be nothing that makes this spot more appealing than elsewhere in the surrounding neighborhood; in fact there are quieter places nearer to many restaurants in the area.
 
ChasFink said:
For some time I've seen a large number of birds, mostly crows, congregating at a very busy intersection near me. I pass that area if I take the bus home instead of the train, and I notice they seem to flock there around dusk.

Last night I did some shopping at a supermarket near the intersection. As I sat at the bus stop I looked up and, despite the darkness, saw hundreds and hundreds of crows packed close together perching on the overhead wires. There was close to - if not more than - a thousand. If something spooked them, they would swarm into the air, blackening the already dark sky before settling down. While airborne their excitement fell like rain for a few seconds; I was happy there was a shelter over the bus stop.

Crows are no strangers to the area, and I have seen flocks of a hundred or so, but I was amazed at not only their number but their attraction to this specific location.

The intersection is at 40°44'34.7"N 73°37'01.5"W

https://maps.app.goo.gl/BiGwjpxV8ujmYGGg7

View attachment 86554

The birds seem to prefer the area from about the center of the intersection to a point some 200-250 feet west. I believe they also like the area immediately north, but that was out of my line of sight as I sat at the bus stop near the northwest corner. There seems to be nothing that makes this spot more appealing than elsewhere in the surrounding neighborhood; in fact there are quieter places nearer to many restaurants in the area.
Click to expand...
Might well be something to do with Carle Place Diner which might be attracting them for dropped food scraps? :thought:
 
ChasFink said:
For some time I've seen a large number of birds, mostly crows, congregating at a very busy intersection near me. I pass that area if I take the bus home instead of the train, and I notice they seem to flock there around dusk.

Last night I did some shopping at a supermarket near the intersection. As I sat at the bus stop I looked up and, despite the darkness, saw hundreds and hundreds of crows packed close together perching on the overhead wires. There was close to - if not more than - a thousand. If something spooked them, they would swarm into the air, blackening the already dark sky before settling down. While airborne their excitement fell like rain for a few seconds; I was happy there was a shelter over the bus stop.

Crows are no strangers to the area, and I have seen flocks of a hundred or so, but I was amazed at not only their number but their attraction to this specific location.

The intersection is at 40°44'34.7"N 73°37'01.5"W

https://maps.app.goo.gl/BiGwjpxV8ujmYGGg7

View attachment 86554

The birds seem to prefer the area from about the center of the intersection to a point some 200-250 feet west. I believe they also like the area immediately north, but that was out of my line of sight as I sat at the bus stop near the northwest corner. There seems to be nothing that makes this spot more appealing than elsewhere in the surrounding neighborhood; in fact there are quieter places nearer to many restaurants in the area.
Click to expand...
Makes you wonder. It's nothing but fields for miles round here - flat fields that all look the same. But one particular field always has a load of crows.

A few years back, red kites were released some miles from here and now they have totally taken over the countryside and one common sight in summer is seeing two or three crows try to take down a kite. They actively bully them and they always seem to win the aerial battles.

I've often wondered though why the crows are particularly concentrated on that field. (Crops are rotated and they're as busy there when it's ploughed up as when it's not).
 
Sid said:
Might well be something to do with Carle Place Diner which might be attracting them for dropped food scraps? :thought:
Click to expand...
Yes, you'd think a diner, with a diverse menu and high volume, would attract them. But that's on the east side. While the crows do fill the wires over the middle of the intersection, the flock as a whole is centered on the west side, with many perching over the vitamin store and bank.

The general neighborhood is a shopping hub, with retail as far as the eye can see so, as I said, there are plenty of eateries - but there would be better places to stake them out. The parking lots to the northwest serve at least a half-dozen restaurants and the supermarket, but I don't see a lot of birds in those lots. Just east of the diner is a shopping center with two busy restaurants, and just past that is another shopping center with several more. On the southeast side is a steak house and the entrance to the very large Roosevelt Field shopping mall, home to many places to eat - but the mall is surrounded by a huge complex of parking lots and garages that keep it far from that intersection.

I wonder if the crows like it there because it's central to all these, even if it's not immediately close to any one of them.

I did do a little research and found that these huge nighttime hangouts are common with crows. They may even stop to visit some friends in smaller groups on their way "home" in the evening.
 
ChasFink said:
I wonder if the crows like it there because it's central to all these, even if it's not immediately close to any one of them.

I did do a little research and found that these huge nighttime hangouts are common with crows. They may even stop to visit some friends in smaller groups on their way "home" in the evening.
Click to expand...
Ahhh like the British and their pubs.:)
 
Here is my crow story from this summer. I was driving quickly around a corner on the highway and noticed a crow strutting proudly and purposefully along. He had tucked under his wing a freshly peeled stick bout the size of a stout pencil. Like a majorette with a baton he strutted along, proudly with his new tool and a sense of purpose. I wonder what the purpose of the stick was and where he was going with it. I think he may even have been showing off and might have been happy I noticed as he marched along. We all love an audience. The crows would know me as they recognize my face and fly in front of me knowing I will slow down and not try and run them over. Anyway, thoughts?
 
plethora devoid said:
Here is my crow story from this summer. I was driving quickly around a corner on the highway and noticed a crow strutting proudly and purposefully along. He had tucked under his wing a freshly peeled stick bout the size of a stout pencil. Like a majorette with a baton he strutted along, proudly with his new tool and a sense of purpose. I wonder what the purpose of the stick was and where he was going with it. I think he may even have been showing off and might have been happy I noticed as he marched along. We all love an audience. The crows would know me as they recognize my face and fly in front of me knowing I will slow down and not try and run them over. Anyway, thoughts?
Click to expand...
Might well be a brand new technique of keeping hold of another tool?
Could be an interesting new development to report!
https://www.earth.com/news/crows-look-after-their-valuable-tools-more-carefully/
 
Last edited:
ChasFink said:
For some time I've seen a large number of birds, mostly crows, congregating at a very busy intersection near me. I pass that area if I take the bus home instead of the train, and I notice they seem to flock there around dusk.

Last night I did some shopping at a supermarket near the intersection. As I sat at the bus stop I looked up and, despite the darkness, saw hundreds and hundreds of crows packed close together perching on the overhead wires. There was close to - if not more than - a thousand. If something spooked them, they would swarm into the air, blackening the already dark sky before settling down. While airborne their excitement fell like rain for a few seconds; I was happy there was a shelter over the bus stop.

Crows are no strangers to the area, and I have seen flocks of a hundred or so, but I was amazed at not only their number but their attraction to this specific location.

The intersection is at 40°44'34.7"N 73°37'01.5"W

https://maps.app.goo.gl/BiGwjpxV8ujmYGGg7

View attachment 86554

The birds seem to prefer the area from about the center of the intersection to a point some 200-250 feet west. I believe they also like the area immediately north, but that was out of my line of sight as I sat at the bus stop near the northwest corner. There seems to be nothing that makes this spot more appealing than elsewhere in the surrounding neighborhood; in fact there are quieter places nearer to many restaurants in the area.
Click to expand...
Further development: I've been to this area in the evening several times lately. No crows.
 
plethora devoid said:
Here is my crow story from this summer. I was driving quickly around a corner on the highway and noticed a crow strutting proudly and purposefully along. He had tucked under his wing a freshly peeled stick bout the size of a stout pencil. Like a majorette with a baton he strutted along, proudly with his new tool and a sense of purpose. I wonder what the purpose of the stick was and where he was going with it. I think he may even have been showing off and might have been happy I noticed as he marched along. We all love an audience. The crows would know me as they recognize my face and fly in front of me knowing I will slow down and not try and run them over. Anyway, thoughts?
Click to expand...
Probably going to use it as a tool to pry bark with.
 
Frideswide said:
Maybe they are experimenting, trying to find out if the bipeds can tell left from right?

No pressure, you're just doing this for the entire planet! :twothumbs:
Click to expand...
I can give you my answer to that. No.

I may have posted this on another thread, but I am partly left handed. I can't say fully, but I do write left handed. When a teacher was teaching us little ones left and right, she told us it was easy to remember which was which. Then, her idiotic teaching was "You write with your right hand". Stupid.

Even now, I often have to pause to consider which is right because if I think of this instruction, it's WRONG.

@Floyd and I have had quips exchanged regarding me knowing the four directions. That's because they don't change based on perspective.:nods:

And I know that there is no one who has not had the humorous discussion "Your right, or my right?"
 

A crow's math skills include geometry​

Crows are able to look at a handful of four-sided shapes and correctly distinguish those that exhibit geometric regularity from those that don't, according to a provocative new study.

webp


It's the first time a species other than humans has been shown to have this kind of geometric intuition, says Andreas Nieder, a cognitive neurobiologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

"Claiming that it is specific to us humans, that only humans can detect geometric regularity, is now falsified," says Nieder.

He and his colleagues tested the abilities of two carrion crows that live in their lab. Previously, Nieder's group has shown that the crows' counting ability rivals that of toddlers.

The birds' work involves basically playing computer games that are designed to tease out how much they know about math.

For this study, the birds would look at a computer screen and see a group of six shapes. To get a treat of tasty mealworms, they'd have to peck on the shape that was different from the others.

"Initially we presented some very obviously different figures," says Nieder. "For instance, five moons and one flower."

When the crows pecked on the flower shape, they got a snack.

After the birds understood this game, the researchers started showing them sets of shapes that included squares, parallelograms, or irregular quadrilaterals.

The crows might see, for example, five perfect squares along with one four-sided figure that was just slightly off.

What the researchers wanted to know is whether or not "with these quadrilaterals, they could still continue to find the outlier, even though the outlier was looking perceptually very similar to the other five regular shapes," explains Nieder.

Yes. It turns out, the crows could.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/12/nx-s1-5359438/a-crows-math-skills-include-geometry

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:

A crow's math skills include geometry​

Crows are able to look at a handful of four-sided shapes and correctly distinguish those that exhibit geometric regularity from those that don't, according to a provocative new study.

webp


It's the first time a species other than humans has been shown to have this kind of geometric intuition, says Andreas Nieder, a cognitive neurobiologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

"Claiming that it is specific to us humans, that only humans can detect geometric regularity, is now falsified," says Nieder.

He and his colleagues tested the abilities of two carrion crows that live in their lab. Previously, Nieder's group has shown that the crows' counting ability rivals that of toddlers.

The birds' work involves basically playing computer games that are designed to tease out how much they know about math.

For this study, the birds would look at a computer screen and see a group of six shapes. To get a treat of tasty mealworms, they'd have to peck on the shape that was different from the others.

"Initially we presented some very obviously different figures," says Nieder. "For instance, five moons and one flower."

When the crows pecked on the flower shape, they got a snack.

After the birds understood this game, the researchers started showing them sets of shapes that included squares, parallelograms, or irregular quadrilaterals.

The crows might see, for example, five perfect squares along with one four-sided figure that was just slightly off.

What the researchers wanted to know is whether or not "with these quadrilaterals, they could still continue to find the outlier, even though the outlier was looking perceptually very similar to the other five regular shapes," explains Nieder.

Yes. It turns out, the crows could.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/12/nx-s1-5359438/a-crows-math-skills-include-geometry

maximus otter
Click to expand...
Not surprising really, makes me think of that saying. . . "as straight as the Crow flies!"
 
maximus otter said:

A crow's math skills include geometry​

Crows are able to look at a handful of four-sided shapes and correctly distinguish those that exhibit geometric regularity from those that don't, according to a provocative new study.

webp


It's the first time a species other than humans has been shown to have this kind of geometric intuition, says Andreas Nieder, a cognitive neurobiologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

"Claiming that it is specific to us humans, that only humans can detect geometric regularity, is now falsified," says Nieder.

He and his colleagues tested the abilities of two carrion crows that live in their lab. Previously, Nieder's group has shown that the crows' counting ability rivals that of toddlers.

The birds' work involves basically playing computer games that are designed to tease out how much they know about math.

For this study, the birds would look at a computer screen and see a group of six shapes. To get a treat of tasty mealworms, they'd have to peck on the shape that was different from the others.

"Initially we presented some very obviously different figures," says Nieder. "For instance, five moons and one flower."

When the crows pecked on the flower shape, they got a snack.

After the birds understood this game, the researchers started showing them sets of shapes that included squares, parallelograms, or irregular quadrilaterals.

The crows might see, for example, five perfect squares along with one four-sided figure that was just slightly off.

What the researchers wanted to know is whether or not "with these quadrilaterals, they could still continue to find the outlier, even though the outlier was looking perceptually very similar to the other five regular shapes," explains Nieder.

Yes. It turns out, the crows could.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/12/nx-s1-5359438/a-crows-math-skills-include-geometry

maximus otter
Click to expand...
Why is the study 'provocative'?
 
Not what we expected.

But it makes sense, they are given X X X X A

And to get the treat they have to pick A

Once they grasp that idea its simple, -and they have superior vision and probably observation skills.

They can, presumably, pick an off square from a set of true squares.
 
I saw some crows mobbing a buzzard yesterday. It is a sight I often witness, especially around this time of year. I believe buzzards will predate crow nests given half a chance, hence the corvids reacting with fury whenever a buzzard is on the scene.

The buzzard did not appear to be too alarmed but it eventually decided a tactical retreat was in order.
 
John Fairclough71 said:
I saw some crows mobbing a buzzard yesterday. It is a sight I often witness, especially around this time of year. I believe buzzards will predate crow nests given half a chance, hence the corvids reacting with fury whenever a buzzard is on the scene.

The buzzard did not appear to be too alarmed but it eventually decided a tactical retreat was in order.
Click to expand...
True. . . I've seen our local Crows mobbing a Buzzard/s long before they get anywhere near to the local Rookery particularly during nesting time. i.e. (Crowery :):yeahthat:)
 
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