Crows descend upon downtown South Bend for another winter

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- As winter nights descend upon South Bend, it's like a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. But then mornings can be a crappy situation.

South Bend is once again home to thousands of crows during these cold winter months.

"They are flocking downtown because they are trying to seek warmth and shelter from the winter weather," said St. Joseph County Health Officer, Dr. Michelle Migliore. "The crows really love to roost in the wintertime as a group."

This means sidewalks, trees, buildings, and government offices are often covered in droppings.

"The white that you see is not actually stool," Migliore said. "That is urine; their urine is white."

At a time when bird flu is spreading among poultry in the United States, ABC57's Annie Kate sat down with Migliore to ask if such a concentration of birds in an urban setting poses any risks. She said no; it would be incredibly rare.

"Songbirds like cardinals, crows... do not carry the avian flu, the flu virus that we all worry about with the bird flu," she said. "They do not carry that particular variant that is harmful to humans."

This is great news, but it doesn't mean the crows are free of germs.

"There are things that birds do carry, it's just very rare to get them," Migliore said.

One spot downtown, the McDonald's on Michigan, uses decoy owls— the dreaded predator of crows-- to try and scare the birds.

There might not be a lot we can do about the birds outside, but Migliore says one of the best ways to keep ourselves and our homes clean is to take our shoes off before going inside.

Make sure to stay away from any dead birds you may see, in fact, it's a good idea to report any sightings of dead crows to the Department of Natural Resources.

Otherwise, until the warmer months come, the crows are calling downtown home.