Another murder of crows has taken up residence in downtown Bangor this winter — and it’s seemingly bigger than last year’s.
While crows have gathered downtown on winter nights for years to stay safe, warm and well-fed, there may be more crows around this year. This could be because the species is seeing a population boom after a virus wiped out many crows in recent years, according to Bob Duchesne, vice president of Maine Audubon’s Penobscot Valley Chapter and creator of the Maine Birding Trail.
For years, crows have adapted to roost in cities across Maine during winter nights because they’re generally warmer and brighter, making it easier for crows to spot approaching predators, the most fearsome of which is the great horned owl.
“We do have great horned owls in downtown Bangor, believe it or not,” Duchesne said.
Urban areas also tend to provide ample and easy food sources, such as garbage, dropped food and roadkill.
Gathering in large numbers also decreases a crow’s likelihood of getting targeted by a predator at night, Duchesne said. Crows will also notice which members of the group seem well-fed and follow them to their food source the next day.
Though murders of crows have gathered on winter nights around downtown Bangor for years, their favorite roosting spots change slightly from year to year. Past roosting locations include residential trees around the end of Kenduskeag Avenue, Mount Pleasant Cemetery and near the Veterans Remembrance Bridge on the Brewer side of the Penobscot River.
Maine’s crow population has also grown by “hundred of percentages” in the roughly 30 years “since we stopped persecuting them and they started gathering in cities in the winter,” Duchesne said.
Duchesne, who writes a birding column for Bangor Daily News, estimated crow flocks in the city have ranged from 2,000 to 5,000 birds.
Previously, Mainers would hunt crows for food or to exterminate them because they were considered invasive pests. Crows are now federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Crows also seem to have learned that no one will hunt them in a city, Duchesne said.
While Duchesne couldn’t say how many are in Bangor this winter compared with recent years, he said there could be more this year for two reasons.
First, the local crow population has been “artificially low” in recent years because the birds are susceptible to West Nile Virus, which is spread through infected mosquitoes and is usually deadly to crows.
Second, the warm summer Maine saw last year gave crows the perfect breeding season and helped them keep their young healthy, Duchesne said.
