Crows love garbage -- and the warmth that garbage-spewing human hustle-and-bustle brings.
Which means crows love downtown Portland.
Thousands of crows make for the Rose City’s core every year. They loom from trees, black and ominous, unnerving pedestrians who still have Hitchcockian nightmares about birds -- or, at the least, fear a milky crow dropping hitting them as they make for Starbucks.
The city has tried various means of scaring off the crows. Most notable has been loud noise -- repeated, percussive bangs. This didn’t really work, and it led people to think a shootout was happening nearby.
So in 2017, Downtown Portland Clean & Safe tried something new: falconry.
That’s right, unleashing trained birds of prey on the unsuspecting crows.
And it worked. The flying predators weren’t bothered by downtown’s lights and noise, as was a concern. “And we also discovered that the crows responded consistently and reliably to the presence of our hawks,” falconer Kort Clayton told OPB last year. “They retreat. It’s really that simple.”
The result: a lot fewer crows -- and a lot less crow mess on the sidewalks and streets -- in Portland’s major business district.
It’s been such a success that Downtown Portland Clean & Safe wants to, er, crow about it.
On Tuesday, Oct. 15, the cleaning-and-security outfit and Integrated Avian Solutions will present a falconry demonstration at 900 Southwest 5th Avenue at 6:30 p.m. Falconers will release their hawks shortly after the event begins to show “how the clearing [of crows] works.”
“This is the third year Downtown Portland Clean & Safe has worked with Integrated Avian Solutions to utilize urban falconry as a humane tactic to reduce the presence of roosting crows in the downtown core,” DPC&S wrote in a news release. “Families and children are welcome to attend, and bird-themed treats will be provided.”
-- Douglas Perry
Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.