Sophomore Tazire Weaver became accustomed to the sounds of crows outside her room at Spruce Residence Hall.
“The sound is like a squawking sound, and it sort of sounds like they're in pain,” Weaver said.
This winter, between 10,000 and 20,000 crows have made their homes in the trees of Bloomington. The noisy black birds, members of the Corvidae family, are among the smartest kinds of birds. They group together winter nights to stay warm and communicate about where to find food, professor Susan Hengeveld said.
Though crows don’t pose a huge public health impact, the birds and their droppings can be a nuisance, so the IU Facility Operations team has established a humane technique for dealing with them: noise-making devices.
