PORTLAND, Ore. — A big crowd turned out in downtown Portland tonight to get a front row seat to what's become a tradition this time of year.
They got to see how the city clears the trees of crows. The birds come to roost downtown in the fall and leave their mark on the benches and sidewalks.
So the city started contracting with falconers. They bring in hawks to chase the crows away.
They just fly close to the crows and don't actually attack them. Tonight, they did a demonstration for the crowd and people were excited.
One person brought a sign to cheer on the hawks. It reads, "Go actual hawks."
The crowd also got to ask questions of the falconers. One wanted to know if the crows recognize the guys that keep kicking them out of the trees.
"Crows are intelligent. They are known to recognize human faces. I'm confident they do they recognize we come in with a significant threat," said Kort Clayton with Integrated Avian Solutions. "Not too many people walk around with hawks downtown. They associate us with these birds and our vehicles even."
There's an estimated 15,000 crows that roost downtown each year. Clayton said he believes because of their work over the past 3 years, fewer have been coming back here to roost.