University of Prince Edward Island students dodge dive-bombing crows

Students at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown say they're being forced to dodge aggressive crows swooping down from the sky.

If you have food, you're the target.- Hannah Jay, first-year student

First-year student Hannah Jay said she was attacked while carrying a cinnamon to class. Another student filmed while the crow flew at her head repeatedly. 

"As I'm walking to my class, all of a sudden I feel these claws grab the top of my head. And I look behind me and there's a crow sitting there," Jay said.

"You don't realize how big they are until you're up close and personal with them but they're quite a big bird."              

Jay said she's seen a few friends get attacked as well, and is now a little on edge when passing the birds.

"If you have food, you're the target."

Harley Larade said she runs between buildings because it's not unusual for crows to come right at her.

"Hopefully it gets fixed," she said. "I don't know how it could get fixed, but it's not good to be scared to go outside."

Too clever to be trapped

The university said it's had one or two complaints a week in the last few months.

Greg Clayton, UPEI's director of facilities management, said provincial wildlife officials believe the three or four problem crows were once fed by people.

UPEI has hired a contractor to lure the birds into cages using bait so they can be relocated to the North Shore. But so far, the birds are too clever to be trapped.

"We're trying our best to do this in a humane way," Clayton said.

The university has also installed owl decoys around areas of the heaviest foot traffic to spook the crows and has circulated a notice asking people not to feed the birds.

Clayton isn't sure what the university will do if the birds come back after they're relocated, but he said killing the crows isn't an option UPEI has been willing to consider.

'Trying to be friendly'

Behavioural ecologist Kevin McGowan from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York has followed the life history of more than 3,000 crows.

He said the birds are associating people with food and it's typical for them to land on a person's head — but they're not attacking.

"They're actually trying to be friendly," he said. "That's just their way of saying. 'Hi, I want to talk to you.'" 

McGowan said crows are not aggressive and typically don't like coming close to people 

He doesn't think relocation will work, as some crows from the Maritimes fly down to New Jersey and Virginia to spend the winter and then fly back.

"Where are you going to take these birds?"