Hundreds of crows make noise, mess outside downtown building
PORTLAND, Ore. – People walking in Downtown Portland early in the morning sport hats and umbrellas for protection.
And it’s not just protection from rain.
Hundreds of crows have taken up residence in the trees around the Standard Insurance Center building, next to the Multnomah County Courthouse.
“The noise, and then you look up and you just see the trees, loaded with them,” said Patty Somdalen.
The birds showed up a few weeks ago. People who work at Standard Insurance said they’ve never seen anything like it.
“They’re all over the place. They’re like across the street so you can’t go over there,” said Alan Smith. “Because there’s still poop on the sidewalk and I just don’t want to get it on my shoes.”
It’s hard not to step in the white stuff around the building. Even our KATU News crews fell victim to the crows.
But the threat goes away once the workday starts. It’s quiet. Not a bird in sight.
The National Audubon Society says it’s normal for urban crows to gather in huge groups to gather to sleep during the winter. They leave to find food during the day.
Early birds heading to work will have to take cover during the next few months.
“When I first saw it, I thought of Hitchcock and ‘The Birds’,” said John Atkins.
We heard about this story from a KATU news tip. If you have a story for us, send an email to newstips@katu.com
Crows can remember your face and even tell other crows about. you. Crows can hold grudges. Crows have different dialects in different regions. Â For real! And more:Â http://www.cracked.com/article_19042_6-terrifying-ways-crows-are-way-smarter-than-you-think.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=blog+dietle
I love crows. I love how smart they are, how they can use tools, even learn speech, and how they live in big groups made up of all their relatives with many caring for the young ( who have blue eyes when hatched, BTW). I love the audacious  sound of them on the tops of trees in the fog, or in this video.  I am awed by their adaptability and their grand self-esteem.  Bird crap  is no big deal; will wash away in our rains. It always does.  It could be worse: we could be living in Australia instead  with  huge flocks of cockatoos destroying houses with their huge BEAKS. http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2003/10/09/2045456.htm
They're there every winter.
Noisy and they crap on everything.
When the city starts to wake up, they take off and go hunting for food.
They're so thick they look like black leaves on the trees.
Make sure you have an umbrella!
for a very smart bird they sure have poor taste in vacation getaways.
I think they are the souls of all the IT personnel that Standard Insurance layed off who have all come back to haunt the firm. Oh wait.. there are only a few hundred birds. Standard Insurance outsourced 50% their IT department and layed of WAY more than just that.
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Ironic that there is bird crap all over the place. Kind of a metaphor for the company's management.
"Itâs hard not to step in the white stuff around the building. Even our KATU News crews fell victim to the crows." Evidently the crows knew the quality of their story.
 @The Resistance Usually K2 calls snow "white stuff", as do all the other news media sources. Call it like it is: Bird poop.  Cuz it ain't no snow!
Time for some (Jim) Crow laws?
They are part of the Occupy Movement! LOL
My car got hit twice while in the museum on Sunday, but I DO prefer them over the Occupy Portland group!
Reading this article brought to mind this piece I found concerning crows. There are many different beliefs and superstitions from a wide variety of many different groups and countries. Most link the crow to death, simply for the fact that the crow is black in color, black being linked to death itself as well as negative energy, the void. For instance; Ancient Celtics believed that the crow was a bringer of death, a bad omen when sighted. They had a respectful fear for the crow and often strayed away from them. Their confidence in this belief came from wars. After wars the battlefields would be littered with morbid bodies, cut open, and limbs sprawled across the land. The crows would scavenge and eat the flesh of the deceased. The Celts felt this to be a negative event and feared the crow as they would death. From wiccantogether.com Just thought you might want to know.
 @The Resistance Nice post info!
On this continent, the  native indigenous peoples associate the owl as the harbinger of death.Â
Crow is known to the Inuit  for when he brought daylight to their world which was in constant darkness, by stealing the sun: http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/crow_brings_the_daylight.html
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 Crow Factoid Fun! Crows reach sexual maturity around the age of 3 years for females and 5 years for males. Some crows may live to the age of 20, and the oldest known American crow in the wild was almost 30 years old. The oldest captive crow documented died at age 59!! Read more from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow
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 @The Resistance Yes, this helps...
I like them better than the last "occupy" group.
 @al_02 HA!!
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A murder of crows outside an insurance building?
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I think it was Native American folklore that told that a murder of crows forebode a coming disaster if they could not be chased away....Â
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Just to be safe, I'm going to call Standard and cancel my life insurance.Â
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Once upon a midnight dreary....
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 @MarkKpic A good one....
You have to look at it from the crow's viewpoint. Â They figure if panhandlers, deadbeats and other assorted weirdos are welcome in downtown Portland, they should be also. Â They, rightly so, probably think while they are there, it will be an improvement to downtown.
From reading this story and many of the comments, it seems like this is meant to be a funny story, like 8-year-old boys might whisper to each other at a Cub Scout meeting. However, there is an increasing number of crows in the urban area, to the point of nuisance, as supported by this story.
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Since it's documented that crows are a main vector to West Nile virus, via mosquitoes, and a suspected vector for H5N1 via the agency of droppings, the Biblical magnitude of which herein reported should at least raise some eyebrows in concern. I'll bet that the people chuckling now, who think that "Early birds heading to work will have to take cover during the next few months" is kinda cute, and that it is a reasonable and fair compromise with the crow population won't find this so funny if H5N1 shows up again.
 @sawfish666 May a black crow swoop upon you and peck your eyes out, infect you with a virus and poop on your babble!
 @swimbad ...and a pox on your house, as well!
Don't hold back, tell us how you think :)
 @Pvpbw I paint with a lg. brush.
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Someone go slip on that poop, hit your head against the building and sue Standard Insurance. Not really. Lame news story. YEEE!
Slow news day.
 @dkgiovenco sez your parrot who was jealous of the crows
It's the meeting place before all the food carts open up;-)
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Good time to open up a crow bar!
This report is what happens when a station is pressed for stories, about anything, and the teletype is silent.
Slow News Days must be really hard on the station people of KATU news. They would have to Make Up things to take to the screen. Sometimes it's hard to be creative.
god forbid a few birds poop in the city for a short while, we let the occupy junkies do it all winter
not to mention they put sam adams in office
LOL - so, the KATU crew got bird pooped on too! That's great.Â
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My daughter is a bird-poop magnet. If there is a bird within 100 yards of her, it'll find a way to drop right on her. It's hilarious. She'd freak out if she saw that many in one place, though. She'd never leave the vehicle.   ha!
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What else do you expect around those buildings? Nothing but noise and poop.
Occupy Portland at work again?
I hope they are waiting for Sam Adams to walk under them.
Crows are not just smart -- they are the most intelligent bird species. (FYI, a group of crows is called a "murder".)
 @felines99 We had a pet crow that was scooped up when young while in traffic by our oldest daughter with danger...and we feed him and raised him and the kids loved this bird...his name was Jasper and he was fun and got into lots of trouble, including serious trouble if your keys were in the ignition with windows down when visiting our place ....this crow was tamed but wild and flew and hung around the place until dark and then stayed inside. I have never /ever hurt one of these birds after Jasper. First thing in the morning he hung out by the chicken house waiting for the first egg laid and when the hen sung her song he would causally bounce walk into the laying room and soon return with his breakfast.. He loved to play with the children's long blonde hair, steal their goats milk filled nursing bottles and peck them on top of the head if too much noise was emulating from their where abouts and most stunning of all the damn crow learned to speak words...at least ten before he was shot by the neighbor that hated crows.
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Sorry for the monologue, but two thumbs and all toes for the 'crows are intelligent bird species
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 @yaquina  @felines99 I would've kicked the neighbor's rear end!
 @yaquina Thanks so much for sharing that really unusual story about Jasper, yaquina. He was obviously very intelligent, and he sounds like a real sweetheart!
 @yaquina  @felines99 Your neighbor was horrible. Just evil and wretched.
 @whirledworld  @yaquina I so agree.
the other terms are a "storytelling", "parcel" or "muster"
 @babeduk68 Yes, I was referring to the PBS documentary, "A Murder of Crows". Apparently, other terms for a group of crows include cauldron, caucus, congress, cowardice, and hover (Wiktionary).
 @babeduk68 Oops: "Wikitionary".
 @felines99 If there is only one or two crows is it an attempted murder? lol
 @pdx10  @felines99 LOL... Nice one, pdx.Â
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If a group inadvertantly show up together, would that be unintentional murder?
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 @Rob C 503Yes, let's shoot birds downtown. That's a brilliant idea! Who cares if people get shot. Evidently they don't teach you how to appropriately use an apostrophe down south either. Full of good ideas...
@WildeIsOnMine W'hy w'ould anyon'e ge't sho't? D'o'n't yo'u thin'k tha't s'ome t'hought an'd plannin'g migh't g'o int'o s'uch a'n even't?
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 @WildeIsOnMine  @Rob C 503 Especially right in the middle of downtown...I mean really.
@WildeIsOnMine ......English major? Ever used an iPad? Or do you just like feeling superior?
@FreedomRocks........I'm finding that more and more.
 @Rob C 503  @WildeIsOnMine They just like to feel superior...I use Dragon Naturally Speaking and get lots of grammar and spelling police that must be current or retired English professors. Usually they are so focuses on the spelling and grammar they don't or can't comprehend the content:)