A murder of swarming crows

While cycling last night, Hubs and I  were almost deafened by the noise of thousands of shrieking crows  swarming across the sky nearly  blacking it out. I’ve always wondered why they only seem to do this at certain times of the year. In fact, despite a multitude of theories, nobody really knows.

Crows are members of the Corvidae family, which also includes ravens and magpies. They are loud, social and very intelligent birds, which live across the world, except for Antarctica. They are predators and scavengers, which means that they will eat practically anything. Their diet consists of various road-kill, insects, frogs, snakes, mice, corn, human fast food, even eggs and nestlings of other birds.

Crows are very social and have a tightly knit family, they also mate for life. They roost in their thousands and they use at least 250 different calls. Their distress call brings other crows to their aid, as they will defend unrelated crows. Last year a cat caught a young crow in our garden. It’s shrieking immediately brought six or seven adults rushing to its aid, and as well as attacking the cat, the crows were dive bombing me.The chick survived to tell the tale though!

A group of crows is called a murder. There are several different explanations for the origin of this term, mostly based on old folk tales and superstitions. Many view the appearance of crows as an omen of death because ravens and crows are scavengers and are generally associated with dead bodies, battlefields, and cemeteries, and they’re thought to circle in large numbers above sites where animals or people are expected to soon die.

Crows also have long memories. Many years ago, my Hubs threw apples at a pair of crows trying to roost in our chimney to discourage them. He didn’t hit the crows yet they dived bombed him every time he went out for years! And not only did the original pair dive bomb him, their extended family joined in! So be warned….don’t anger a crow!