DANVILLE, Ill. — In this Vermilion County town known for having
what just might be North America’s largest winter crow roost,
there are half the number of black birds there were a year ago.
That said, when the tallying was done at the annual Middlefork
River Valley Christmas Bird Count on Jan. 1, the crows still
outnumbered the humans nearly 4-to-1. This season, more than
100,000 crows have roosted here at night, in the trees and on
the rooftops, eaves, awnings, fence posts, parking garage,
traffic lights and telephone wires. And folks in this town don’t
like to — what’s the word? — crow about it. There are no
souvenir shirts to advertise this “Crow Capital’s" claim to
fame, but through the years, there have been plenty of sidewalks
and store awnings splattered with droppings, residents
complaining of being bombarded and a whole lot of people who get
increasingly tired of stepping around “it." “It is the largest
winter roost of crows that we know about in the U.S. and
Canada," said Steve Bailey, of Mundelein,