City of Bern must learn to live with crows: coexistence instead of culling
«There is no simple solution,» the city government concludes. «We will have to come to terms with the crows.»
Rooks are impressive corvids. They are large, sociable, and very communicative. Since this has led to conflicts, the city of Bern has tested various deterrent measures in recent years. Find out here what the results look like.
The SVP parliamentary group wanted to know whether the city was planning new measures against the crows that have been causing irritation for years. Particularly in the northern district around the barracks, many a resident is being robbed of sleep by the noise of the birds.
Indeed, the crow population has been steadily increasing since 1988, as the municipal council acknowledges in its response published on Thursday. In the countryside, rooks find sufficient food, while in the city they can nest undisturbed because there are no enemies such as the sparrowhawk.
In recent years, according to the municipal council, everything imaginable has been tried. Removing nests proved just as unsuccessful as tree pruning and the use of falcons.Although shooting rooks has been permitted since 2012, that too achieved nothing — «just as many crows nested as before».
Clever crows
The greatest success so far has been achieved with eagle owl decoys. Residents can order them free of charge from the city. The plastic birds are fitted with a rope — when pulled, the artificial eagle owl moves and intimidates the crows.
Eagle owl decoy for deterring rooks.
In theory, at least. In practice, the clever crows see through the trick if the owl decoy isn't shaken regularly. Nevertheless, the decoys continue to be used for the time being, as they do have some degree of success. Rooks are not only clever, but also persistent. In February, staff from Stadtgrün Bern had removed 99 old crow nests on Winkelriedstrasse, Ostermundigenstrasse, and Tellstrasse to bring some relief to the troubled Nordquartier. But the birds returned and rebuilt their nests.
At the end of March, Stadtgrün Bern met with representatives from around 25 cities and cantons for a “Crow Summit.” The sobering conclusion: “There is no truly effective measure”, as the municipal council writes. Any form of deterrence had merely resulted in the fragmentation of the colony.
As some consolation, it continues: “The window of greatest noise and pollution impact is limited to the months of March through May.” Once the young birds are fledged, things become noticeably quieter.
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