Crow capital
of California

YUBA CITY 1/31/03 -- Thirteen years of close study and practical experiment have taught city officials all they want to know of crows, except how to get rid of them.

In 1999, experts estimated that 1.5 million American crows (Corvus brachyrynchos) winter in Yuba City -- three times more than in the previous decade, city analyst Bill Fuller said.

The number has likely increased since then, said Mayor Bob Barkhouse, who has spearheaded the city's crow control crusade since 1990.

From time out of mind, crows have roosted in Sutter County each year from October to April. Few thought much about until, "the city moved into the country," Fuller said.

One day a housing developer uprooted an orchard that turned out to be an old crow stomping ground. Sacred turf for crows.

"Crows are like salmon, they imprint on a place," said Fuller, who has sat on countless committees grappling with the city crow woes.

The displaced crows moved to a townhouse condominium, but were chased out. For reasons unclear, they then invaded the city, where they prospered and multiplied. And multiplied.

Crows are protected species on the federal migratory bird list. Regulations and public perceptions have hampered efforts to stem the bird boom, Barkhouse said.

About six years ago, for instance, a plan was hatched to poison the crows on the roof of the Sunsweet plant.

"PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) got wind of it and threatened to boycott Sunsweet products. Sunsweet took it seriously, and it was 'Not on our roof' after that," Barkhouse recalled.

Crows are smart birds. They use tools, live up to 20 years in captivity, are socially gregarious, steal shiny objects with aplomb and eat any and everything from road kill to candy corn.

"French fries are a favorite. We tell the fast food places to lock their dumpster lids," said Fuller.

The crows of Yuba City are a spectacular sight as their flocks swell in the twilight sky before swooping in black-speck clouds to roost in crowded crow-trees and rooftop rookeries.

During the day the crows forage up to 40 miles away. Late in the day they begin to gather at three or four main rendezvous points outside the city. Then, as dusk descends they head for town.

"Go up in the training tower behind Fire Station #1 and look out. You can see them coming in from north, south, west. Clouds of them," Barkhouse said.

In a groundbreaking 1999 study, the Yuba City wrote to 473 other cities around the state asking if they had crows; 206 wrote back saying, "You bet!"

From the detailed responses a scientific discovery was made: California has a crow corridor. "It runs from Yuba City down to Bakersfield, then over to Santa Barbara, then down to San Diego," Barkhouse said.

The study also confirmed a previous suspicion: "We're the crow capital of California," Mayor Barkhouse said.

Thousands of crows roost nightly atop The Mall in Yuba City, where they snack on the pebbles in the roof tar. "They eat the gravel for digestion," said Thomas Felter, mall general manager.

Hundreds fill the sumac trees in the mall parking lot, with each murder of crows silently, surreally eyeing the shoppers as they pass by -- like the birds in the movie of the same name.

Crows emit more than atmosphere, and it costs about $2,000 a month for a full-time employee to clean it off the walls and sidewalks, mall manager Felter said.

For two years, the city steam-cleaned the sidewalks in the Plumas Street shopping district, but quit because of the expense. Merchants now do their own cleaning, with some spending $1,000 a month to get remove the unsightly crow-crud, Barkhouse said.

Doctors at Fremont Hospital worried about people tracking crow residue into operating rooms have employees periodically setting off firecrackers to scare the crows away.

There is "a kind of bird birth control pill" chemical, which would interfere with egg development and ultimately reduce the crows. But it would take $3 million to get Environmental Protection Agency approval, so that plan has been shelved, Barkhouse.

A $200,000 grant would fund the three-year study needed to justify federal assistance, but that seems unlikely considering the present economy, Barkhouse said.

For a time, it seemed Mother Nature might come to Yuba City's rescue, with the westward march the West Nile disease.

"Crows are especially susceptible to West Nile. We thought that would do it for us. But then someone pointed how many dead crows there'd be all over the place -- and did we really want that?" Barkhouse said.

So, for the foreseeable future anyway, mall shoppers, county workers at the Civic Center, merchants downtown and nurses en route to Fremont, can still pause at dusk and to marvel at the vast clouds of crows swirling in the evening sky.