15 December 2025
Now that it’s really cold — 10°F this morning — Pittsburgh’s winter crow flock roosts in the warmest areas of city street trees and building roofs. The “poot” they leave behind is so unpleasant that people brainstorm about ways to scare crows.
In the city it’s not as simple as putting up a scarecrow. This one is scary to humans!
Wooden “clappers” used to be effective at moving the crows away from Univ of Pittsburgh campus, but the crows are bored by them now.
In 2023 Pitt played a scarecrow recording in the trees near the Cathedral of Learning. Alas it doesn’t work as well now. See a video of the recording here at Trying to Move the Crows.
In 2015 in Japan people put up signs on a building saying “Crows Do Not Enter.” It worked because people read the signs and stared into the building looking for crows. Crows hate to be watched that intently. See Crows Do Not Enter! for more details.
What are crows always afraid of? Great horned owls! The owls are large and powerful, fly silently in the dark, and will eat crows.
The great horned owl pair that nested under the Panther Hollow Bridge last winter is hooting and courting now. My friend Andrea B heard one making low pitched hoots from a roof on Parkview Avenue and the other responding in a higher pitch from Schenley Park’s Junction Hollow. (The low pitch is the female because she’s larger. The higher pitch is the male.)
Crows in the know don’t sleep in Schenley Park and they avoid flying over Parkview. They don’t want to encounter this mother owl whose nest was a success last year. The nest is empty right now but its territory is just a half mile from the crows’ current staging area at Frick Fine Arts.
In Everglades NP, they have a problem with black vultures eating the rubber on cars. Once, I saw a dead black vulture hanging from a tree in the parking lot. There were no problems with vultures eating rubber that day. I hate to suggest it, but what if a dead crow hanging from a tree could do the same thing?
Jim, I’ve seen photos of this in Britain and an experiment by crow researchers in the U.S. who got permission to use the carcass of a crow that died a natural death (watching how crows reacted to it). When people are particularly plagued by crows, advisors suggest using crow effigies. See Crow effigy on a roof.