Crows congregate inDelano, California, in 2014. The birds tend to gether in urban areas, prompting some city officialsspanning New York, Illinois and Oregonto try to disperse them. David McNew / Getty ImagesTens of thousands of crows coming to town in a cawing, swirling, dark mass sounds like a scene from Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds. But in cities across the United States where crows are taking over, residents and officials are faced with a dilemma. Should they let the highly intelligent birds be, or roust them away from downtown areas?In Rochester, New York, frustrations with the crow population, which reaches upwards of 20,000 each night during the holiday season, have prompted city officials to use serious scare tactics to ward off the roosts.According to David Andreatta of the New York Times, beaming lasers at buildings, shining high-powered flashlights into the night sky and playing recordings of distressed corvid sounds are all part of the non-lethal arsenal that wildlife specialists in Rochester have an annual habit of using to break up massive murders, as groups of crows are known.A news clip from 13WHAM ABC News, a local Rochester channel, shows an official in a yellow vest firing a flare gun into the sky while crows circle overhead and sit in dense clumps in nearby trees.Its non-lethal, doesnt hurt them, just moves them, Karen St. Aubin, the citys director of operations, tells the network.Methods to disperse large roost of crows begin in downtown RochesterWatch on Crows roost in cities out of convenienceespecially during the winter, when the ambient heat of the urban area helps keep them warm. Lights at night, as well as open spaces like grassy parks and parking lots, make tracking and hunting prey easier.Crows basically like what human beings have done to North America, Kevin McGowan at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology told the New York Times James Gorman back in 2004, when Auburn, New York, was facing such high numbers of crow visitors that residents were encouraged kill as many as possible in a controversial Crow Shoot competition.Theyre better off being in a big group, where they get the benefit of all those eyes looking out for danger, John Marzluff, a corvid expert at the University of Washington and the author of Gifts of the Crow, explained to the Atlantics Tove Danovich in March.But city officials complain that crows are far toomessy: The problem is that these are not little birds, and these are not little drops they leave behind. Theyre big, slimy and disgusting, Shelly Larson, the superintendent of community improvements in Danville, Illinois, told the Chicago Tribune in 2021. The Midwestern town has a human population of under 30,000, but it regularly contends with more than 100,000 crows.We used to have to powerwash benches, sidewalks, statues, St. Aubin of Rochester tells the New York Times. Its really about maintenance. Some of these larger roosts are in public places, and they can make them unusable.She reasons that the $9,000 the city spends on crow deterrence each year is worth it. Some Rochester residents disagree and find their citys methods excessively cruel to the birds.A Facebook group called Rochesterians for Crows has more than 1,000 members. According to its bio, the group began in February 2012 in response to the citys intolerable actions against the massively intelligent and often misunderstood bird that tends to polarize communities across the nation.The groups members share reverent photos of the roosts, memes that say things like be the crow you wish to see in the world and petitions to curb what they see as aggressive anti-crow action.Some members of the group point toward Portland, Oregon, as a role model for dealing with urban crow populations. They cheer Portlands purchase of the so-called Poopmaster 6000a high-powered, ride-on street sweeper and scrubberas a way to address the problem of corvid feces without disturbing the birds.The Bird Alliance of Oregon states that the Portland nonprofit managing city cleanliness has committed to using non-lethal tactics to deal with crows and even testified in favor of a ban on crow poisons. But in recent years, Portland has also leaned on hazing, including contracting licensed falconers who use Harriss Hawks to push the crows away from downtown.The hazing has been very successful, writes the Bird Alliance of Oregon. The hawks, without touching the crows, have steered them toward parks and green spaces along the Willamette River, where conflicts with humans are reduced. Among the various hazing alternatives, it is probably least disruptive and closest to what they might experience under natural circumstances.McGowan, for one, thinks Rochesters efforts are in the right direction, although he now adds to the New York Times that you can get them out of a neighborhood or away from the town hall, but youre not going to get rid of them.One poster in the Facebook group, a self-described corvid fanatic who only recently learned about Rochesters predicament, finds the very idea of dispersing crows ignorant and repugnant.Id pay cash to experience a massive crow roosting such as the ones your elected officials are spending your taxes trying to disperse, he adds. Rebrand Rochester as Crow City and place a few tiny ads in some birding magazines. The hotels will soon fill, the restaurants will have to hire more staff and EVERYBODY WINS.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Birds, Cities, Ethics, Nature, wildlife