[CT Birds] 100’s of Crows Waterbury

[Ian Devlin via CTBirds]

4:30pm
Waterbury by Route 8

Hundreds of crows flocking to roost for the night in treetops along RT 8 by Waterbury.

I used to see this reliably and all the time in the evening between Exit 15 I-95/Route 7 Connector to DMV back in the 1980’s into the 1990’s. If not hundreds of crows, then at least thousands of them. No more. Does anyone else remember this phenomenon there and then?

Capt. Ian Devlin
Norwalk, CT.
Sent from my iPhone

To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send an email with just "join" or "leave" in the subject or body to: ctbirds...@lists.ctbirding.org

CTBirds, a service of Connecticut Ornithological Association - Bringing birders together statewide. Please support COA: https://www.ctbirding.org/join-us/

CTBirds is for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For list rules and subscription information visit: https://www.ctbirding.org/birds-birding/ct-birds-email-list/

[Frank Mantlik via CTBirds]

Hello Ian,
I remember the Norwalk crow roost well. I no longer live in Norwalk, so the fact that the evening roost no longer exists is news to me. Perhaps those crows are now flying all the way to Waterbury, or even West Haven.

Frank Mantlik
Stratford

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 5, 2026, at 10:32 PM, Ian Devlin via CTBirds <ctb...@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote:
>
> 4:30pm

[C. S. Wood via CTBirds]

There has been a crow roost in Waterbury for at least 40 years. It has
apparently relocated from the northern part of the city to the area
around the Rt 8/Rt 84 interchange. I just noticed it recently, but I do
not travel that way in the evening as often these days so I don’t know
how long it has been there.

Chris Wood
Woodbury, CT
203 558-0654
[1]C.S. Wood Photo Sampler

On Jan 5, 2026, at 11:23 PM, Frank Mantlik via CTBirds
<ctb...@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote:

Hello Ian,

4:30pm

Waterbury by Route 8

Capt. Ian Devlin

Norwalk, CT.

Sent from my iPhone

References

1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cswood-photos/albums/72157710313935571/

[Folsom-O'Keefe, Corrie via CTBirds]

In the winter months, when I'm driving home from the Bent of the River Audubon Center, I see the birds congregating around the Rte 8/84 interchange. Often there is a line of birds coming from Northeast and I'm pretty sure the birds that fly over my house in Cheshire in the morning and early evening are coming and going from this roost. New Year Eve, I was headed home from a gathering north of Waterbury. It was snowing, thundering, and lighting. As we drove through Waterbury, a flash of lighting startled the crows and they took to the air. Snow, orange illuminated skies, and crow everywhere. It was quite the sight.
 
Cheers,
Corrie Folsom-O'Keefe
 
Cheshire, CT

[Tom Baptist via CTBirds]

The history of winter crow roosts in Connecticut is fascinating.
Connecticut Birds (Zeranski & Baptist 1990) cites an article published in
Bird-Lore in 1933 that listed winter crow roosts in five Connecticut
counties, the largest roost being in Hartford of 50,000 birds and indicated
that that roost was "known to exist for at least 100 years". Believing
that crows were significant predators of eggs and young of waterfowl, song
and insectivorous birds, the Connecticut Board of Fisheries and Game
embarked on a campaign in the winter of 1932-33 to eradicate crows at their
winter roosts and approximately 1,000 birds were shot that winter before
the effort was abandoned. The crows simply dispersed to form new roosts,
"thus outrunning the men performing the killing."

--
Tom Baptist
19 Brookside Court
East Hampton, CT 06424
(203) 979-6800