The Incline | By Colin Deppen | October 26, 2018

A group of crows is called “a murder.” That may be reason enough not to want 10,000 of them around at once.

But there are other reasons, too. Just ask officials at Pitt, where, after years of contending with hordes of migrating winter crows, there have been no bird-perpetrated homicides but plenty of smelly and slippery messes left on sidewalks.

It’s a visual fitting of “The Birds.” The school’s response has been more “Home Alone.”

Defense starts around sunset, with the steady, cacophonous cawing of birds unseen. Outside the Cathedral of Learning on Friday, the sound was powerful enough to be clearly detected from inside a moving vehicle. It evoked mental images of a bar fight between seagulls.

Joe Miksch, director of media relations at the university, said it’s actually the recorded sound of owls and hawks — known predators of crows.

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