Yesterday morning I was sitting on my porch and I saw black birds,huge,flying in the formation of a chevron. I was greatly taken in by the sight. There were at least 500 to a thousand. Three different flocks of birds, in an impressive form of unity. They were headed west. Why would they not head South?
It was very beautiful. Do these birds just not migrate south? It was cold,and I just thought they would seek warmer weather. From Chicago, and I will hope you can help solve this question.
A chevron is pretty basic, let’s see them try to fly in the formation of a shell or arco.
I’ll solve your question….go back to Chicago. Those birds used to fly south before transplants like you fucked up everything.
What you’re seeing are the transplant birds. They don’t migrate anywhere but Portland. They come from, ‘yep you got it’, the dreaded Midwest of U.S. and Canada. Once they get here they try real hard to fit in, but get rejected at every attempt. They really can’t find their way around the area too well and the other birds (who were migrants themselves not long ago) don’t help them one bit. Most of them since getting here have tried going south to Cali, but found it too confusing and crowded for them. Nesting wasn’t cheap either. Sticks and twigs cost a wing and a leg down there. So they aimlessly fly around ever searching for happiness and comfort. I see them at the Libraries a lot where everybody is treated pretty nice.
I like the birds out here. Some are pretty huge for flying around apartments and people. I notice they just like to fly up in the pine trees.
In the scenario you described, the reason they do this is because the area they are use to nesting, most likely has been disturbed. For a number of reasons they got freaked out and had to move on. They are nice to watch.