[Bird Control] A Crow from the Dark Side

It has often been stated that if a person knows three birds one of them would be a crow. The American crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos, is a large, coal black, distinctive, garrulous, ubiquitous bird with a call that is easily recognizable. Crows belong to a unique family of birds called the Corvidae (which includes jays, ravens and magpies). Corvids are very intelligent birds. Pet crows are known to possess the unique ability to articulate words and the sounds of the human voice. They readily master simple words such as "mama," "papa," "hello" and others. They can often imitate human laughter to perfection. Browne (1996) reported that in New Caledonia, crows were observed fashioning hooks and probes in various forms. He referred to these birds as the second greatest toolmaker and he thought that crow’s tools were more advanced than those of early humans. Crows are highly social, gregarious, cunning and smart creatures (Savage 1995). Crows are omnivorous and they can eat almost anything edible. They belong to a select group of birds that appear equally adept at live hunting, pirating and scavenging.

In North American ornithological history, no other native bird has been so severely persecuted by so many for so long as the crow. It has been shot, poisoned, trapped, sprayed with chemicals, had explosives hurled at it and even dynamited on their roost. And still crows flourish and they remain among the most widespread of American birds.

THE PROBLEM. In early September 2004, I received a call from a plant manager of an elementary school in the San Fernando Valley, Calif., area stating that students were being harassed by a crow. I have never encountered such a situation before and my initial reaction was that this was a one-time unusual incident not likely to be repeated. The plant manager inquired as to whether this crow might be exhibiting bizarre behavior due to infection with West Nile virus. That was a legitimate question because dead crows were being found in good numbers on school campuses all over the San Fernando Valley. I explained to the plant manager that the incident he described was unusual and abnormal behavior for crows and that it was most likely a one-time aberrant incident not likely to occur again. I instructed him to call me if the problem should reoccur. About two weeks later, the plant manager called again and reported that the crow was back and it was harassing students with a renewed vengeance. It kept up this activity for three or four days in a row.

The sequence of events in this crow’s behavior at this school was as follows. It would arrive at the school at daybreak. Around 7 a.m., as children were being dropped off at the front of the school, the crow would harass them and attempt to steal their lunches. This aggressive behavior was creating havoc to the extent that an adult had to be stationed outside to "shoo" the crow away. As the entrance gates were unlocked and the students entered the campus, the crow would move in right along with them. Some of the students would join a line at the kitchen window to pick up their breakfast. From there, they would carry their breakfast trays across an asphalt area for a distance of about 100 feet to an open lunch area with a roof that had lunch tables underneath where they would sit and consume their breakfast. It was during this walk to the lunch area that the crow would swoop down on the children and attempt to land on their heads or shoulders with outstretched feet.

This sudden aerial attack would surprise the students to the extent that they would drop their trays and run for cover. The crow would then calmly proceed to pick the most desirable morsels (sausages and other meat products) from the spilled food and consume them. During some of these attacks, some children reported scratches on their faces, necks, noses and heads. One student was so traumatized by an attack that he had to be sent home. The next day, one of his parents called and reported that the child had a fever and inquired as to whether or not he may have contracted something from the crow. Another little girl was so frightened by this bird because she was attacked once, and saw others being harassed by the crow, that she would not walk alone from where she was dropped off at the curb to her classroom. An adult had to escort her across the school grounds.

After breakfast finished, the students would go out to play on the playground until the bell rang at 8:30 a.m., which signaled that it was time to line up to enter the various classrooms. They would place their backpacks down on the asphalt in a group while they were playing. The pestiferous crow would walk among the backpacks scouting around for snacks, paper bag lunches, and other food items. It was reported that the crow stole and damaged several lunch bags in one week. Once the bell rang and the kids entered the classrooms, the crow would perch on the entrance ramp railings and would often be seen leaning forward to look inside classrooms. On several occasions, I saw the offending crow perched on top of open classroom doors leaning to look inside and appearing to want to fly into the rooms. Once the kids settled down in classrooms and the noise and commotion ceased outdoors, the crow would leave this school. It would reappear again the next day at the same time and the routine would start all over again.

Complaints about the crow were being lodged by students, parents, teachers and site administrators. The aggressive behavior of this crow had disrupted the regular breakfast routine at this elementary school to the extent that suggestions were being made to feed the children indoors, which was a great inconvenience to everyone. The squawking of this bird overhead would cause students in the area to quickly look up to see where the bird would strike next.

THE SOLUTION. A team of pest management technicians was dispatched to the school at daybreak one day to assess and evaluate the situation with the goal of devising a plan to retrieve the offending bird. Their conclusion was this bird was too clever to be caught by conventional methods. Meanwhile, the bird harassment continued and complaints were being lodged by administrators, staff, parents and students. The school principal called and said that he was under tremendous parental pressure to do something quickly about the crow.

Up to that time, the author had not personally visited the school and he had relied on information provided to him by others who had observed the deviant behavior of this crow. Based on observations of others, it was decided that the best and possibly quickest way to retrieve this crow was to use 2-inch bird net loosely deployed in a manner similar to a volleyball net in an area frequented by this bird. The author and an assistant arrived at the school at dawn one Friday morning to try to resolve the bird issue. The crow showed up on schedule and started its routine. Based on its flight pattern that morning, I decided to hang the bird net between a tree and the lunch area canopy. We broke up six slices of bread and scattered the pieces under the net as a visual enticement to the crow to fly in that direction. What we did not know at the time was that this crow had developed a carnivorous appetite and it was a waste of time to try to entice it with bread. We had to use caution tape to set off the net area to keep kids from loitering there and the color and movement of the tape was probably a deterrent to the crow flying in that area. While the net was up, we tried to stalk the crow in the playground area to see if we could ensnare it with long-handle nets and also at the same time try to herd it towards the deployed net. We tried every possible idea we could think of but all to no avail. This bird was smart enough not to let an adult get too close to it, especially if you had something in your hands. On one occasion, we herded the crow in the direction of the net and we had it flying towards it when the bird suddenly gained altitude and veered off to the right, circled around and returned from whence we were herding it.

We worked at a frenzied pace that morning because we were told that about 9 a.m. the bird would leave. What added to the complexity of this situation was that the crow would be at the school engaging in its renegade behavior approximately between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Monday through Friday at precisely the time when children were out and about throughout the area. The window of opportunity to deal with this bird was narrow. By 9 a.m. that Friday, true to its schedule, the crow left the school and did not return for the rest of the day. This bird knew the school routine well. It was never observed at the school on weekends. The principal was observing our efforts to retrieve the bird that Friday morning and although he was disappointed that we did not catch the creature, he understood that we were doing our best given the circumstances. However, we still had to find a way to catch this troublesome crow.

A SECOND BIRD? While all this was going on, complaints were being received by the pest management department that a crow was attacking students at an elementary school about 1 mile west on the same street from the previously discussed school. The crow’s behavior that was described to me by site administrators at the new school was strikingly similar to what was occurring at our original problem school. My initial reaction was that this was no coincidence. I began asking myself this question: Could it be that this same crow was pulling a double shift at these two schools? I know that crows are intelligent birds but I was still having difficulties convincing myself that it was one and the same crow that was creating havoc at two separate schools about one mile apart. It was at that time I recollected something significant about this vagabond crow.

I recalled that this wayward crow had a distinctive call that was somewhat unlike that of other wild crows. Once you hear that peculiar call, a discerning person could identify that crow by its voice without actually seeing the bird. I called the plant manager at the second school and inquired about the call of the crow that was bothering them. Low and behold, he reported the unusual crow call. I knew then that I was dealing with an "Alfred Hitchcock"-type crow that was pulling a double shift at two different schools. The modus operandi of this crow was as follows: It would work one school early in the morning until breakfast was finished at around 8:30 to 9 a.m. and then it would appear at the other school at break time (9 to 9:30 a.m.) to bother the students over there. It would subsequently leave only to show up the next day, at about the same time, and start all over again.

OTHER METHODS. After failing once before to take this crow, I had to rethink my strategy. Prior observations told me that I could not rely on any single technique to catch this bird. In light of this, I requested the District wood shop personnel to construct two rectangular traps, each 3 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot high. These traps were covered with ¾-inch heavy duty bird net on all sides except the bottom. The idea was to prop these traps up with small dimension 12 inch long pieces of wood dowels, set them out on the asphalt playground where the kids leave their backpacks, and place sausages and hamburger patties under them. The prop sticks will be tied to long pieces of fishing lines and a person stationed at the ends ready to pull the stick away if the crow ventured under the trap to eat the meat.

I also began thinking of a more effective way to deploy the bird net. During our last attempt at catching this crow, we were forced to deploy the net at one location because that was the only place where we could find suitable attachment points. I devised an idea of using heavy-duty 2-inch diameter PVC pipes to support the net. Holes had to be drilled in the pipes at the correct locations to appropriately suspend the net at the desired height. The bottom of the pipes would be placed in five gallon buckets which would then be filled to the top with sand. This technique would allow us the flexibility to quickly re-deploy the net to a more strategic location if observations indicated that was necessary.

As luck would have it, while I was out in the office parking lot getting the PVC poles, sand, buckets and net ready for a test run, my cell phone rang. It was the plant manager from the second school where the crow was causing a problem. He informed me that the crow had followed some children into a restroom at his school and someone had closed the door when the kids left the restroom and the crow was still in there. I quickly gave him a directive to personally secure that restroom door until I arrived.

While in transit to the site, I called the office and requested that they call the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation and asked that an officer be dispatched to the location to retrieve the bird. This was a school site and all necessary precautions had to be taken to ensure that the bird was handled in accordance with regulations and in a humane manner.

On arrival at the site, I quickly assessed the situation. I noticed a screened, open transom window at the rear of the restroom in which the bird was confined. I placed a ladder in the area, climbed up and peered into the restroom. The crow was perched on top of the restroom stall wall facing the door from which it entered. It appeared to be eagerly waiting for someone to open the door so it could take to the wing and make a break for it. In light of that, I decided that in order to guard against a possible escape when the door is opened, it would be best to put up an enclosure using 2-inch bird net around the door. The top of the net was attached to the walkway ceiling and the bottom was weighed down with ladders. The ladders could be easily removed to allow ingress and egress into the enclosure.

By the time the protective net enclosure was completed, Officer Dancy from the Department of Animal Regulation arrived on the scene. She was briefed on the situation and after performing her own assessment, she surreptitiously slipped into the restroom and quickly closed the door behind her. She used a towel to professionally restrain the crow and remove it from the restroom. An animal cage was placed in the netted area so that the bird could be safely placed in it while at the same time guarding against any possible escape.

After the bird was removed from the restroom, the facility was cleaned, disinfected, sanitized, deodorized, and locked until it was thoroughly dried and adequately ventilated before students were allowed to use it again.

Once this crow was removed, the bird problems at both of the schools immediately ceased. That was our final proof that it was the same bird at both schools.

WHY ABERRANT BEHAVIOR? The question I was most frequently asked regarding the unusual behavior of this crow was: Why was this bird behaving in this manner? We will never know with certainty why this bird was exhibiting such deviant behavior. However, based on observations, it is believed that this bird was raised or kept in captivity by humans at some time in its life. It may have been an orphan young crow that was adopted and taken care of by humans or it could have been a baby crow that was taken from its nest or fell out of its nest and reared by humans. The behavior of this crow would lead one to conclude that it was comfortable around children as it showed no fear when it was among them. This indicates that children may have played an important role in taking care of this crow at some time in its life and it has come to associate children with food.

It must be pointed out that under federal law it is illegal to keep a crow in captivity without a special permit. If you rescue a baby crow and keep it for any length of time, you are breaking the law and could be subjected to federal penalties. However good your intentions may be, it is best to leave baby crows alone because, along with help from their parents, they are perfectly capable of surviving in the wild on their own. Crows are intensely social animals and when deprived of the benefits of being raised in "crow society," they end up being dysfunctional and maladjusted individuals who do not function well in the real world and they often come to misfortune and may ultimately meet their demise because of anomalistic behavior.

LITERATURE CITED

Browne, M.W. 1996. Second greatest toolmaker? A title crows can crow about. New York Times. January 30, 1996. Section B. pp.5,8.

Savage, C. 1995. Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Author’s note: The opinions expressed in this paper are that of the author and they do not represent the thinking, policy or procedures of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The author is a board-certified entomologist and an urban and structural entomologist and consultant based in Ontario, Calif. He can be reached at hgulmahamad@giemedia.com.