There are many different species of birds in Beaverton that many don’t know the names of, but everyone seems to easily recognize the Crow. More than 20,000 Crows roost every night in Portland, but they spend the day foraging in the suburbs—many hundreds of them in Beaverton alone.
Although their loud cawing can be irritating, it does seem overkill to call a gathering of these birds a “murder of Crows”. But that is what our medieval ancestors called a group of these black feathered avians. At that time, Crows were associated with death. On ancient battlefields, Crows scavenged the bodies of slain soldiers. Their all-black plumage was reminiscent of funeral attire.
Why are Crows so tolerant of our close proximity? One reason is that Crows were here first — we are actually latecomers to their realm. Crows, together with Ravens, Magpies and Jays, belong to the family of corvidae. Crows and Ravens evolved about 20 million years ago, and the American Crow became its own species about 5 million years ago. In contrast, anatomically modern humans (Homo Sapiens) first appeared in Africa around 300,000 years ago and reached North America less than 26,000 years ago…