WKSU News:WKSU Crow comes a-callin'

Monday, May 25, 2009 WKSU Crow comes a-callin' Efforts to remove bird continue.

A common crow has uncommon taste in music and news and has apparently adopted WKSU as his/her favorite radio station. Each morning the curious corvis comes a-callin', and often bangs the glass doors until shooed away. What is he/she after? We're not quite sure here at 89.7 fm. It may be NPR and classical music, OR the foam insulation that lines the glass front of the building. The bird has committed itself to removing every last bit of it from around the molding.

Look for more updates on the WKSU crow.

Trapping of the crow with baited cages and sticky pads have not worked. Yet. A certified trapper continues the effort to remove the crow.

And below there is audio of the crow calling at the front door - translation unavailable.

Crow calls at front door of WKSU

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An interview with naturalist Julie Zickefoose

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(Click image for larger view.)

Staking out the doorway from the rooftop

Curious crow looks like he wants to come inside for some coffee

Crow visits the front door every morning

Could this cage catch a crow? A trapper tries his best at WKSU.

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Listener Comments:

I knew a lady that had a crow come to her enclosed porch repeatedly until it decided to make the porch its home. She began to feed it and made a pet out of it. The crow lived there for years coming and going as it pleased until one day it never returned.

Posted by: Vanessa Brown (Richfield) on May 25, 2009 7:59AM

You may have a beating heart burried somewhere under the floor boards.

Posted by: Randy on May 15, 2009 12:03PM

Whew. This is the first I've heard of a crow doing this. I am getting a couple of emails a day about other songbirds having at windows and car mirrors. Nobody seems to understand the birds' motivation. This has more to do with the crow's seeing his reflection than his wanting in. A crow doesn't want to come in a building. Look at it from his viewpoint and I'm sure you'll see a reflection. Very cheap possible fix: Stretch sheets of Saran wrap on the outside of the window in question. An effective alternative would be spraying artificial snow on it. The idea is to kill the reflection, and hopefully thereby kill his interest in the window/door. He's removing the weatherstripping as a displacement behavior, in frustration at not being able to get at the mysterious crow that mimics all his actions.

A couple of other ideas, should this prove ineffective--or should he simply move to another window:

Contact paper on the outside of the window.

A scarecrow. No, really--set up a lawn chair with a stuffed dummy and keep moving it, and moving its position lest he acclimate to it.

Something like an inflatable toy that will move in the wind, suspended over the window.

This is a highly intelligent adversary, as I'm sure you've found in trying to trap it. Unfortunately, he also has a screw loose. Birds thus obsessed can persist in the behavior for years, forsaking their mates and offspring to fight the rival. I had a friend in Pennsylvania who had a female cardinal fighting his windows all day for six years, starting at first light, YEAR ROUND. I'll be interested to hear what happens and whether these suggestions prove effective. Good luck!

Posted by: Julie Zickefoose (Whipple, Ohio) on May 13, 2009 2:57PM

I'm guessing you'll have a family of crows nearby soon. This guy will have a well-insulated nest.

Posted by: Kathy (Cleveland) on May 6, 2009 10:59AM

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