Crows are literally ruining my life right now (badly need some advice and much-needed perspective).

[bobbythejobby]

Could desperately use some advice/perspective on this situation.

I live on a housing estate that has lots of woods close-by. Consequently we’ve always had lots of birds around the area – pigeons, magpies, blackbirds, robins, crows. All the birds was one of the things I used to like about my house because I’m a bird person (which is partly why this problem becoming such a huge deal has been a shock for me).

Problems started approx. January. I noticed a crow sitting on my neighbour's fence a few doors down and cawing very loudly and repeatedly at their front window. This went on for a few days and then everything was quiet again for a few months.March I heard a crow making this same constant, loud cawing at the windows of a nursery building right across from my house, actually sitting on the windowsills and cawing directly at the windows.This went on on and off for several weeks. At the same time seagulls started nesting on top of this nursery building (they’re still there now with a few cute little fluffy baby seagulls) and I noticed that two crows would be constantly winding up the seagulls, dive-bombing them in between one of them cawing at the windows. At this point the crows weren’t a problem for us, it was just something I’d noticed because of the noise.

Then one morning right at the beginning of May a crow had been cawing at the windows of the nursery again all morning. I closed the blinds of my upstairs bedroom where I was working on my laptop at the desk and next thing I know this crow is at my window, sitting on the sill, cawing at the windows and tapping on them. That first day it only happened that once but the next day it appeared at 5am, woke me up with this fucking infernal cawing I’ve never heard the likes of and it continued at regular intervals throughout the day right up until 945 at night.

Cue two and a half weeks of what I can only describe as absolute, literal torture. Getting woken up every morning between 430am and 530am with it cawing at every upstairs window in the house and this then continuing throughout the day until 10pm at night. It got to the point where everytime I went into an upstairs room it would be on the windowsill, sometimes cawing and tapping and sometimes just sitting on the sill, it would see me and fly off only to return. It was fucking dreadful and after two and a half weeks I could barely function I was so sleep-deprived and so sick and anxious of the noise. So I got bird spikes and put them on the upstairs windows. This solved the problem though seemed to tick off the crow for a few days, he’d appear on the back fence and caw a few times and then fly off usually in the evenings.It stayed away from our house but I would often hear it in the area, all over the place, near and far, making that awful screeching cawing sound for hours on end. But as it stayed away from the house I thought problem-solved.

A couple of weeks after putting up the bird spikes, so maybe three weeks ago now, I went out to weed my back garden. While I was out there I heard several crows all cawing and making a racket fairly close but not near my house and I couldn't see them. After going back into the house a crow then appeared on my livingroom windowsill (so downstairs windows where there are no bird spikes on the sills because it had never been at these windows until then) and started cawing at the window. It only done this once and disappeared.

Since then, whenever I open my upstairs bedroom window (the window it first appeared to caw and tap at) I hear it cawing close-ish, maybe once or twice. Worse than that when I leave the house I sometimes (it’s only sometimes) hear what sounds like very young crows cawing on my roof and then the parent either lands on a nearby roof and starts cawing or I’ll hear a crow caw in the distance as if replying. It feels like it’s being directed at only me because I don’t hear it when my neighbours leave their houses. A couple of times when I’ve left the house to walk into town I’ve heard that same loud, angry cawing when I’ve gotten about five minutes’ walk away and been convinced I’m being followed by this crow. Sometimes when I go into rooms in my house I’ll hear this sudden loud cawing as if it’s actually watching my house.

I don’t think there’s any crow nests on my roof for context. I do think this crow has been hanging around in the street on and off for a while as a lot of my neighbours have overflowing bins. I do often see it at several neighbour’s bins.

I never physically chased this crow away from my windows when it was sitting on the sills cawing but it’s obviously seen my face because I couldn't possibly avoid it when it was always on the bloody windowsills of every room I went into.

I feel like the tipping point was when I weeded the garden that day but I don’t get why me weeding my garden was seen as being threatening?

I’m aware how totally stupid this sounds and that I’m probably blowing this out of proportion but it’s been two solid months now since this started and I literally think about this every moment of the day. As utterly ridiculous and over-dramatic as this sounds, all the joy has literally been sucked out of my life since this started. I’m constantly feeling my heart thumping thinking about how my house is ruined because all I read online about crows is that they have long memories and hold grudges for long periods.

I don’t think I’m normally someone who blows a problem out of proportion and I don’t think I’m prone to catastrophising but this is literally dominating my thoughts almost every moment of the day and I’m even having dreams about it at night. I’m thinking now about asking my GP for anti-anxiety medication for the first time in my life. I don’t want to talk to anyone in real life about this because I’m embarrassed about what a big deal this has become for me and how anxious it’s making me.

I spent years bouncing around in insecure accommodation, thinking I’d never have a house I could call my own, and now I do but it’s been ruined and I’ll never be able to leave the house without being anxious about being cawed at and people noticing I’m being harassed by crows, I’ll never be able to take rubbish out to the bin without being cawed at, can’t ever step foot in my back garden again, will have to listen to that angry caw when I go into a room in my house and it sees me through the windows.

Can anyone who’s knowledgeable about crows give me some advice and perspective on this because it’s gotten to be too big a deal in my head and I’ve lost all perspective.

I know it might be suggested I leave food out for this crow but I'm not keen to do this as it obviously knows my house and I don't want to give it a reason to keep hanging around.

Am I blowing this out of proportion?? Is this crow ever going to forget about me and my house? And most importantly, will this ever stop or has my much-longed-for home been ruined for good for me?

God, this post got way longer than I planned when I started it - sorry for the mega-long read.

Why?

The collective cawing will be rooks. And they can be so so loud. We used to have a family of rooks that lived in the trees next to our house and I swear they nearly killed us with their noise, landing on our house and tapping at windows.

I feel your pain. We got some black lined paper type stuff from Amazon I’m sure that you attached to your windows, so we can see out but it looks black from the outside. Yes not the most curb appealing but it did seem to work somewhat. That and ear plugs.

good luck

I live near a big Rookery. This is my alarm call every morning from about 4- 4.30am. With the added anti-snooze feature of a family of magpies who's cheery morning dialogue sound's like machine gun fire.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. In the 70s we had a stainless September pedal bin, and mum would put it on the patio while she cleaned our small kitchen. A blue tit almost killed itself trying to fight its reflection in the bin.

I think it’s too anthropomorphising to ascribe some connection to you, or some malevolence, to the crow. It’s displaying a natural behaviour, but in an unnatural location, so something in the environment has confused it. Try changing something to see if it changes the behaviour.

Corvids are fascinating and intelligent birds with lots of folklore around them. They are an important part of the ecosystem for their role clearing away carrion and thus preventing disease affecting other birds and mammals. Please don’t try chasing them away - we have taken over their environment so it’s on us to do what we can to live in it with them in harmony.

I agree with a previous poster I think it's seeing a reflection of itself. I'd try and making friends with them, so putting out nuts or something every morning at the same time and tap the food tray or ring a bell so they hear you, I've seen it suggested you wear the same jacket or hat so they recognise you. They also like shiny or colourful things so small balls made crumbled of foil, colourful plastic bottle caps, shiny old jewelry or colourful beads. Don't look them in the eye or appear threatening they can recognise you, and hold grudge. Hopefully that will distract them from cawing at you.
I've never had the opportunity to try any of this I've just researched crows as I was interested in the fact they could recognise you and hold a grudge and then saw a video about a farmer making friends with them to scare off birds of pray on his farm, and it worked!
Good luck it sounds exhausting!

I know how you feel. I have spent years planting wildlife friendly plants and trees and it was all going well until a neighbour cut down all his trees and all the local crows (or are they rooks? Big black birds anyway) moved into one of my trees. At first it was quite sweet as they would sit on my ponies backs and pull out tufts of winter coat to line their nests and I was pleased they'd found somewhere safe to live, but then they started killing the little garden birds and terrorising my cats. I usually put out shallow trays of water for wildlife in the hot weather but I'm worried it makes small animals a target for these birds.
A couple of weeks ago I put out a bowl of chicken for my neighbours cat and a massive black crow came down and took the whole lot. Since then he's been fighting any bird that comes near the house, banging our windows for hours each morning starting at 4.30 and smashing into our car roofs and door panels unbelievably hard (I actually thought someone was trapped I my car the first time I heard it). He's covered my car roof and windows in scratches, poo and some sort of greasy wing stuff. If I'm working from home he tries to get m y attention through the French doors. I'm watching your post with interest as I'd like him gone now!

Love crows. I had one that visited me every Saturday in my last place and really want to make a new crow friend. My neighbors cat is too much of a dickhead to allow that though.

Alfred Hitchcock. surely?

Not helpful....

Yes I wondered why the poster said that, and even if someone uses AI to write a post, so what?

I see this everywhere at the moment 'is that written by AI'

Well who cares?

I’m so sorry but I must confess I’m crying laughing at your first post, the way you wrote it was hilarious. I honestly thought you were joking . Crow following you to the shops I fell off me bed laughing . Hope Crazy crow stops following you and lets you out the house again 😂

That's the one I meant to write always get them two mixed up 😅

https://www.thefield.co.uk/food/rook-pie-arundell-arms-33158

Is it feeling territorial due to nesting and cawing at its own reflection in the windows, in which case it should stop fairly soon? Is someone local feeding them from their window (trying to “befriend a murder” and trade for small items is a Thing on the internet)?

Gosh, this would drive me insane as well.
Could you consider getting a cat? They keep birds away (Albeit my cat came off worst in an altercation with a crow so this is not a guarantee with larger aggressive birds.)
Alternatively could you get some clappers or something that makes a noise and frightens them away? Or train the hose on them?

It is arguing with its own reflection in the window.

Sounds like my teenagers.

I’d maybe go to the GP. It’s not normal to care so much about a crow being around… we have them living in our garden and while I hear them a lot I never think they’re targeting me. Birds are quite a common persecutory delusion. Take care of yourself.

Oh and they hate reflective tape or cds on string etc.

The traditional, country way to get rid of a murder of crows is to shoot 2 of them and hang their bodies on a fence for the rest to see, which makes them move on. Obviously don't do this, but you can get fake crow bodies to hang up to deter crows.

😁 I had to double check before I posted!

https://share.temu.com/5QEPYxuIDXB

@bobbythejobby here you go fake crows to hang upside down.

Just make sure the crows don't see you put them up!

Sounds like a scene from The Birds. Sorry, it does sound like a bit of a nightmare. Our back garden backs on to a park so we have a lot of birds too. Crows, pigeons, starlings, sparrows, blue tits, magpies. They do seem like they are breeding more and there are no predators about to keep the numbers down. The odd sparrow hawk has had a couple of pigeons in the past. Thing is crows are big birds. My cat catches a lot of mice and tends to leave them in the garden. One day a crow came and took a dead mouse in its beak and flew off. Since then whenever there’s a dead mouse in my garden a crow comes and gets it.

What about a mask? Leave the house as you are. Go somewhere, change your clothes and come back in a mask. Wear the mask ar home for a day.

See if it helps?

I had no idea crows could be such a menace!

A seagull just squawked outside my window whilst I was reading the thread, it gave me chills.