Expert: Julia Booth - 8/30/2008

Question
QUESTION: I live in Greece NY a suburb if Rochester. This has never happened before, but for the past two weeks hundreds of birds have been flocking the trees in our neighborhood around dusk. It reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds"! They fly from tree to tree, back and forth for about an hour until the sun sets. Most of the birds are Sparrows and Grackles.  Also, the birds do not make as much noise in the morning anymore. What does this mean?

ANSWER: It's definitely happened before. Possibly you haven't noticed, or it hasn't happened this close to your house.

Every fall, grackles form huge flocks and roost in trees, accompanied by cowbirds, house sparrows, blackbirds, and starling. They are noisy pests, for the most part.

But it isn't an omen or anything. Unless you've got a grain crop you're worried about losing, I think the only side effect for you would be the noise.

-I did read of someone saying that flocks of grackles predicted an eclipse of the sun. But as far as I know, we aren't expecting one anytime soon.

Julia

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: But why do they do this? Is it a migrating pattern or what? No, I don't think it is an omen or anything like that, I just think it is unusual for this area, as it has never happened before in this area.  We are all perplexed! Just simple....why do they do this at this time of year? It hasn't happened the whole summer.

Answer
It's not migratory. They are year round residents in almost all of the United States. Really they are considered pests. They decimate crops and destroy vegetation. It could be that they are running out of trees to roost in, in the NY area and are being forced to move into urban areas. That's the case here in California.